What kind of industry is google in?

Do Pharma companies such as Pfizer and Merck have the same kind of business/corporate development/Strategy departments as Google and Facebook have?

• Do Pharma companies such as Pfizer and Merck have the same kind of Business/ Corporate Development/Strategy departments as Google and Facebook have? What do they do? What are the backgrounds of the people that work in them, do they have industry backgrounds or are they from consulting/banking firms?

• Answer:

  Yes, all corporations have corporate structures that cater to various functional and divisional aspects of the company in one form or the other. These corporate structures are corner stones of strategic management theory. The concept you are talking about falls under the functional structure of strategic management where departmentalization is used to separate functions within a company. While each function works independently, they all report to a central entity who usually happens to be the CEO of the organization. The image above (Source: Foundations in Strategic Management by Jeffrey S. Harrison and Caron H. St. Joh) illustrates the different standard corporate structures.