Strategic Alignment

"Dennis has written a practical approach to an issue that plagues so many organizations. The Power of Strategic Alignment is important for any corporation but it is an absolute imperative for a non-profit organization. There is such a temptation to "follow the money." Additionally, there are so many needs in the world that can easily distract good-hearted people and cause organizations to splinter in various directions." David Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer Make-A-Wish(r) America "Any organization's impact depends on strong leaders and not just the CEO. The Power of Strategic Alignment helps senior leaders harness the power of your non-profits' strategy to achieve even more for those you serve." Carolyn S. Miles, President & Chief Executive Save the Children "This is a must-read book for nonprofit CEOs and board members that highlight the importance of communication and developing an organization's leaders, strategies and goals to be successful. The book really illustrates the key elements to make things happen and getting positive results." Jonathan R. Pearson, Executive Director, Corporate Philanthropy and Community Affairs Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey "Drawing on his rich experience as the CEO and now as a highly regarded nonprofit strategic advisor, Dennis Miller provides the reader with a succinct yet comprehensive formula for nonprofit organization leaders and boards to maximize their effectiveness and success. He stresses how an organization, in order to have a successful strategic plan, must have a clear and compelling vision; have completed a comprehensive assessment of key strengths and critical weaknesses; possess a comprehensive funding plan; and complete a detailed plan for implementation and execution. I urge senior executives and board leaders of nonprofit organizations to read this book." Charles M. Dombeck, Chairman National Institute for People with Disabilities in New Jers

Shortlisted for the 2020 Business Book Awards Why do some businesses thrive, while many more struggle and fail? A key reason – and the focus of this book – is strategic alignment. This is the careful arrangement of the various elements of an enterprise – from its business strategy to its organisation – to best support the fulfillment of its long-term purpose. The best-aligned enterprises are the best performing. Most executives recognise that their enterprises should be managed in this aligned way, but lack a robust system of thought to allow them to execute strategic alignment effectively and realise its full benefits. There are thousands of organisations globally that are operating below their potential simply because they are not aligned. This book aims to change that. In Align, Jonathan Trevor provides a blueprint for how strategic alignment can be effectively developed, implemented and sustained. Drawing upon active research at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School (with contributions from the joint works of Dr Jonathan Trevor and Dr Barry Varcoe), Jonathan also provides practical case studies and evidence-based insights – culminating in a thoughtful and compelling message to help leaders everywhere to improve their alignment and enterprise performance.

In Strategic Alignment: The Business Imperative for Leading Organizations, Dr. Akpan paints a clear case for making the necessary investments in IT. Whether we lead business units or technology units, we must invest our time, resources and energy into enabling teams to succeed through proper alignment.

Business results, major change, project initiatives can be achieved more easily than imagined. Strategic Organizational Alignment shows you how and points out the reasons why most excuses businesses make for inadequate implementations are wrong. Through stories, illustrations, and step-by-step guides, Crosby shows you a simple, profound, and repeatable way to ensure your business aligns its employees and has a clear path to success. This book will help you to learn how to focus your workplace on the dynamics critical to achieving greater productivity.

"This book deals with strategic organizational decision-making providing techniques for improving the intelligence of actions by organizational decision-makers"--Provided by publisher.

"This book addresses the crucial question for innovative prospector companies of how to bridge the gap between exploration and exploitation. Whereas exploration deals with the search for new ideas and opportunities, exploitation is about incrementally moving the performance bar a little bit higher. Finding the right balance between exploration and exploitation is essential for the long term survival in today’s highly dynamic business environments. In a cross-industry study of ten large, multinational prospector companies, which are world leaders in their respective industries, it was discovered that the 'industry clockspeed', the length between the subsequent product generations, plays an essential role in bridging this gap. The product generation life cycle (PGLC) typically ranged from just several months in short life cycle industries (SLCIs), such as electronics and the mobile phone industry, to (more than) 10 years in long life cycle industries (LLCIs), such as aerospace and pharmaceutics. Our data indicate that companies operating in SLCIs face major problems in maintaining the long term knowledge base of their firms, whereas companies in LLCIs tend to have problems in aligning their innovation strategy to the short term business needs. To investigate the dynamics of strategic alignment, in one of the LLCI companies, a multinational supplier of industrial components, a six-year longitudinal study was conducted. Here our data indicate that finding a funding structure that effectively balances exploration and exploitation, combined with regular structured feedback between the exploration and exploitation function is needed to maintain long term strategic alignment. CTOs and innovation managers can use this book by first establishing the industry clockspeed(s) in their respective industries or product range(s) and then benchmark their innovation processes to those of the first class (SLCI or LLCI) prospector companies included in this book."

Business-IT strategic alignment grows in importance as organizations strive to link business and technology in light of their digital transformation agendas. Our research study used a field survey design to examine (a) the role of knowledge management processes in the relationship between contextual factors and alignment in a multinational corporation (MNC), and (b) the role of IT projects in the relationship between alignment and the performance and effectiveness of an MNC.The results of our research study had at least four implications to leaders in MNCs: (a) the effects of top managers' knowledge of IT on strategic business-IT alignment; (b) the importance of business-IT alignment to organizational performance and effectiveness; (c) the importance of internal context to knowledge integration; and (d) the role of senior management in knowledge management and strategic management of IT. A theoretical and practical perspective of business-IT strategic alignment in MNCs is provided.