Strategic Alignment:
Aligning the organisation
"In the majority of cases, we estimate
70%,
the real problem isn’t bad strategy,
it is bad execution”
Fortune magazine 1999
The issue...
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One of the biggest challenges with strategy is getting the
organisation behind it.
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Strategy usually involves an improvement in performance, yet
sometimes there is no explicit change in the organisation that
is to deliver it. In these circumstances we call that
"Strategy by hope and magic". Wouldn't
you?
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So, how can you improve alignment?
Help with this issue... Our service means that...
You know that the whole organisation is working towards the strategy. This
can include:
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The allocation of resources and investments. Investments
in terms of projects and initiatives to improve the organisation.
(In one client we identified £40m worth of savings from
misaligned projects). Resources could be people, or
other critical resources.
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Cascading the strategy through the organisation: To
support functions, (IT, HR, Finance, Marketing), to business
units or to across silos to create a joined-up organisation.
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Your key management processes such as budgeting, appraisal,
recruitment and retention (Sometimes small changes can make
big differences to how effective they are)
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The skills, competencies and knowledge of your people.
What they have, what needs developing and where and how they
apply it.
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The technology: existing and in development. This can
involve a technology road map and R&D programme depending
on your organisational needs.
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The organisation's values and its underlying way of thinking
about itself and what it is trying to achieve.
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The measures for checking you are making progress, or diagnosing
problems. The incentives and targets you use to motivate
and influence behaviour.
- The mechanisms of change that will support the strategy.
Overall, you will more confidence in the strategy, more information
on its execution and more chance of making it successful.
In summary we will help you to align the whole organisation so
you serve to your customers better, make work more effective and
involving, and improve your your bottom line.
How we help you...(examples)
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Aligning investments. In one client
we found £40m worth of projects that did not support the
strategy. They were doing other things. That was
a tremendous saving. Aligning investments involves both
individual projects, and the overall portfolio, supporting the
overall direction.
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Competency development. Many engagements include
working closely with HR. This can either be developing a competency
framework or identifying the location, role, number and level
the key competencies that are necessary to drive the strategy.
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Appraisal and recruitment approach: If your
recruitment system is recruiting the wrong sort of people or
if your appraisal system is rewarding and encouraging the wrong
sort of behaviour, they your strategy is unlikely to succeed.
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Introducing rolling budgets. Having a budget
that supports the strategy is a great starting place (oddly
enough only 60% of organisations do this). But having
a budget that can develop and evolve as the strategy develops
is just as important. You wouldn't want to be at the end
of the year and then find out that someone had failed to execute
part of the strategy because they were budget constrained.
In summary we will help you to align the whole organisation
so you serve to your customers better, make work more effective
and involving, and improve your your bottom line.
More on Strategic choice
and design
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