What are the dangers of misaligned strategy?

 

Every good company is guided by corporate strategies which shape and inform the business’s long term project execution. With modern communication and advanced strategy mapping technology, planning and executing strategy has become easier than ever.

While effective strategy can make a big difference to your company’s outcomes, there are plenty of times that misalignment occurs between the strategies devised by managers and the execution of these directives by staff.

When this misalignment occurs, the most obvious outcome is a loss of productivity from staff. If your workers do not understand company strategies, or are unable to effectively realize them, then your initiatives won’t get the desired results and your KPIs will suffer.

At the most extreme end of the scale, ineffective strategy can leave your staff in a state of inertia and unable to achieve meaningful company progress.

While there is a very real risk of corporate strategy not being executed properly, there is also the possibility that it has not been formulated properly by senior managers. In this situation, inefficient or poorly thought-out strategy with no concrete measures of success will leave your employees struggling to execute strategy.

The burden falls on senior managers to make sure that their strategies have been formulated effectively and clearly communicated to staff. It is also essential to make sure that all relevant managers are on the same page when it comes to corporate strategy, as differences of opinion at this level will translate into inefficiencies further down the track.

The good news for companies is that, even if strategy is not being realised currently, it can be easy to fix. Reevaluating how your company strategy is failing is the first step, which will help you identify which part of your plan is letting down your processes.

Once this has been established, consider how new methods might realign your company’s strategy. Investing in business strategy software is an easy way to make sure that you are tracking the execution of company strategy.