Issue 31 August 3, 2004

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In this Issue:

Aligning Vision, Mission and Goals?

Businesses and organizations typically operate according to a strategy that guides them toward their goals. This strategy generally involves some sort of Vision as to what they expect the company to become. It includes a definition of who their customers are and the methods by which they expect to produce and market their goods or services to their customers. It also includes shorter-term goals or mission and the underlying values that are important to the business.

Sometimes such strategies are clearly defined so that each part of the organization can align its goals and objectives to serve the strategic vision of the organization. Many times however, such alignment is left to chance. Consider the following scenario:

The President of a Wholesale and Distribution determines that he wants to company to be defined as �The top wholesaler/distributor in our industry in terms of customer and employee satisfaction�. The president then directs the executive team to align their respective divisions to this new vision.

� The Human Resources manager determines that he can best serve this new vision by implementing a new training program to upgrade the employee skills on their existing order processing system.

� The Operations manager determines that what is needed is an upgrade of software and develops a plan to replace existing order processing system with new state of the art system.

� The Marketing and Sales manager determines that improved customer satisfaction is what is need and develops a plan for customer service training for all employees who deal with customers.

� The Finance Manager decides to reapportion the budget to reduce sofware and training expense to make more money available for new a computer infastructure with an integreated ERP system.

Now the question is, have each of these managers aligned their strategies with the new vision? Well, Yes it appears that they have. But the most important question might be, �What is the probability that the company will move in the direction of achieving their vision�. Probably little or none. The separate strategies are not coordinated, and probably working at cross-purposes. And if you multiply this by all the people who are directed to develop goals to support these efforts it�s would be a wonder if any results occur at all, in spite of the fact that everyone is working diligently to become aligned.

The answer to such a situation of course involves communication and coordination, but also a plan or strategy for deployment throughout the organization

� Start by defining a vision for the company. A vision describes what you expect the company to look like in the future. This description is generally not specifically defined but provide a general description of what we want the company to be.

� Develop a mission statement that defines what must be done in the next 1�3 years to move the company toward that vision.

� Identify the critical success factors that must be accomplished in order to achieve the mission.

� Develop specific Goals and action steps to accomplish the Critical Success Factors

Once these are defined by the executive team they can be translated to the other levels of the company, for example certain critical success factors associated with the Finance may be assigned to the Finance Executive who will develop Goals and Action steps to ensure the critical success factors. This executive may in turn assign goals or success factors to other employees who will develop further goals and action steps.

Planning and achieving success in an organization is very similar to a making a journey. In order to make this journey successful, you would probably want a roadmap; (goals) which will guide you in the most appropriate direction. But, a roadmap is useless unless you start with an idea of your destination (vision) for the journey.

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John Yost

ProCompass Management Services

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