Corporate structure consists of various departments that contribute to the company's overall mission and goals. The Marketing department is considered by some business professionals as the most important entity in the corporate structure. Without this department, sales or new customers cannot be realized. The Finance department is also vitally important, as it is responsible for acquiring capital used in running an organization. Other segments of corporate structure may consist of the Accounting department, HumanResources department, IT department, and the Operational aspect of the particular company. These main six corporate departments represent the major managing resources within a publicly traded company; though there are often smaller departments either within the major segments or in autonomous form.
Another way a corporate structure can be defined is by business divisions. A division of a business is a distinct part of the firm, however the company is legally responsible for all of the obligations and debts of each division. In a large organization, various parts of the business may be run by different subsidiaries, and a business division may include one or many subsidiaries. Each subsidiary is a separate legal entity owned by the primary business or by another subsidiary in the hierarchy. Often a division operates under a separate name and is the equivalent of a corporation or limited liability company that obtains a fictitious name or a "doing business as" certificate.
Hewlett Packard (HP) is a good example of a corporate structure including multiple divisions. The divisions of HP -- e.g., the Printing & Multifunction division, the Handheld Devices division, the Servers division (mini and mainframe computers), et cetera -- all use the HP brand name. However, Compaq (a part of HP since 2002) operates as a subsidiary, using the Compaq brand name.
Corporate Structure
Hewlett Packard is an example of a corporation with multiple divisions and subsidiaries.
Another example is Google. Google Video is a division of Google, and is part of the same corporate entity. However, the YouTube video service is a subsidiary of Google because it remains operated as YouTube, LLC -- a separate business entity even though it is owned by Google.