The Cost of Misalignment

Corporate leaders recognize that transforming a strategic vision into reality is crucial to success. Most companies, however, find this difficult in practice.  How much lost revenue do you think comes from strategic misalignment, within your company? According to the Predictive Index estimates it can be as high as 25% of revenue.

I share summaries and notable insights from The Economist and HBR below, but if you wonder whether your organization is aligned, check out our organizational health scan.

Why Good Strategies Fail

Increase C-suite attention to implementation. Leadership support is the most important factor in successful strategy execution, yet a substantial number of survey respondents indicate that the C-suite is insufficiently involved.

Focus C-suite activity on the correct areas. Corporate-level executives cannot, and should not, conduct every aspect of implementation. The areas in which they have the most impact, according to interviewees, are general oversight, communication and support for strategic initiatives and projects and providing a concerted focus for the key activities.

The C-suite’s role includes prioritisation of initiatives and allocation of resources. Companies cannot do everything simultaneously. Success depends on doing the most important things first. Hence, selecting which initiatives and projects should have a higher priority and corresponding access to resources is itself a strategic choice that should be made at the corporate level.

Integrate implementation and strategy formulation. Strategy-making informed by the successes and failures of the past is much more likely to be realistic and itself successful. Although having an overlap between those involved in implementation and formulation helps, formal and standardized processes to analyze and record lessons learned is the most effective approach.

Develop the necessary skills throughout the company. Because the C-suite cannot do everything, companies need other executives capable of helping to implement strategy. Hiring in and developing appropriate skills, especially the necessary leadership abilities to drive execution, should be a higher priority. Continue reading

The Organization-Wide Wins of Goal-Setting

Regardless of industry, region, or company size, strategic goals are critical to the success of an organization. But as the findings from the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey reveal, organizations that aim to realize real value from implementing a goals framework must overcome considerable obstacles, including time-strapped teams, an unclear roadmap for accomplishing strategic goals, and potentially conflicting goals among different teams and different ranks within the organization. However, if a company wishes to survive in today’s fastmoving business environment, concentrated efforts must be made to better integrate strategic goals into the day-today efforts of employees and to embed those goals in the organization’s cultural fabric.

Strategies include more evenly distributing responsibility for goal setting and tracking, ensuring consistency of goals at every level of an organization, and clearly communicating a roadmap for success. There is more at stake for businesses than simply increasing market share and expanding their customer base. Rather, successful goal fulfilment—when achieved collectively and through clear communication—can bind employees to an organization in ways that deliver meaningful returns. “Very rarely can one person or one team perform all the actions required to accomplish a big, meaningful, strategic goal,” says Gurion. Continue reading