Strategic Alignment: How to Pursue Strategic Alignment

In business, strategic alignment is the practice of ensuring that each variable within the company works together toward the organization’s overall purpose. These elements include the market strategy, business model, and mission statement, as well as your stakeholders, from senior management to individual staff members.

Some business analysts like to break down a strategically aligned company into three distinct business units: the organization (the “what”), the business strategy (the “how”), and the company purpose (the “why”). Your company can flourish when all three of these elements are in strategic alignment.

Strategic alignment is a vital part of a company’s overall effectiveness and profitability. A strategically aligned organization is more likely to succeed because it has a clear business goal and a focused methodology for achieving that objective, allowing it to focus its energy and resources on the path toward strong organizational performance and overall success.

Aligned companies have a significant competitive advantage over unaligned companies because the latter often waste resources or even work against themselves with conflicting goals, strategies, or deliverables.

Follow these tips to ensure your organization is in strategic alignment:

1. 1. Identify every variable you want to align. Before making changes to your organization, you and your leadership team first need to identify each working piece of the puzzle. Your plan for strategic alignment should include the company’s purpose, overall strategy, and organizational structure, but it can also include variables more tailored to your specific business, like corporate goals, management systems, market considerations, and the larger business environment. At this stage, you and your decision-making team members should assess the aspects of the business you want to consider as you set the parameters for alignment.
2. 2. Determine your organization's overall purpose. To start your strategic planning, you need to know what areas you want to align on and what you hope to accomplish. This is the purpose of your company—your mission statement or the strategic goals of the organization—and it should be specific, focused, and inspiring. As you hone your organization’s purpose, consider what metrics or key performance indicators you can use to evaluate your success.
   
3. 3. Assess each variable’s path toward the purpose. Once you identify the players and the common goal, you can sit down and evaluate each variable against the purpose. Consider which elements of your company are extraneous or even detracting from your mission. Look for small tweaks you can make to increase effectiveness or divert energy away from tasks unrelated to the overall purpose, and identify a few initiatives you could begin to focus on to align your organization.
   

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