In his book entitled True Alignment: Linking Company Culture with Customer Needs for Extraordinary Results (see http://amzn.to/1ehBwws), Edgar Papke professes that “the key strategic imperative of any business is alignment”. He underscores the criticality for business leaders and their associates to fully embrace the unique what, why and how of their business, and ensure that all elements of their enterprise are in alignment.
Not surprisingly, alignment begins with clearly articulating the needs and wants of targeted customers. What benefits do they derive from your products and services? How are they affected by your offering? The next key element for alignment is a clear brand intention. All organizations must fully understand their core competencies, mission and business purpose. From these, a business derives a unique value proposition and brand promise that must be deliberately and consistently delivered through its products and services at all touch-points to all stakeholders.
The third element that must be aligned for success is the company’s culture. An organizational culture is much more than a feel-good thing – rather, it defines how an organization must function to fully deliver the brand intention in the most optimal fashion. Where brand intention speaks to the “what and why” of the business, the culture addresses the “how” – that is, the way that individuals and teams engage to achieve desired goals and success. Finally, Papke notes that leadership must be aligned for success. A leader’s style – whether participative, expert or servant – must convey how the brand intention is executed and how the customer is to be treated, while role modeling and reinforcing the organizational culture.
When these four elements are fully aligned, then the strategic vision will be clear. This focus will drive all product/service development, market development, operational improvement, financial and cultural strategies and activities. The organization will function as a fine-tuned organism that understands what it is delivering, why it is offering these things and how it should best go about doing this day in and day out. High employee engagement, market leadership and business growth will be the natural outcome – and isn’t this what we all seek?
Edgar Papke provides a lot more depth to this topic in his book. My intention here is only to underscore the importance of alignment, and encourage you to reflect on what you can do as a business owner to drive this in your enterprise.
© 2014 by Steve Carples (Synergistics Consulting www.synconsult.com). All rights reserved.
