Why The Alignment Advantage™
I’ve never been very good at seeing business through just one lens...
From my undergraduate studies at BYU and graduate work at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business to working in my family’s manufacturing business, I’ve been drawn to the connections between disciplines rather than the optimization of any one of them. I became especially interested in how strategy, people, operations, finance, marketing and creativity either work together—or get in each other’s way.
Working in manufacturing reinforced that systems perspective. Our business served high-volume manufacturers with specialized tooling designed to improve entire production systems, not simply one process. Later, implementing LEAN principles that reduced lead times from 16 weeks to 10 days showed me just how much one part of a business can constrain another.
My work in marketing and brand strategy added another dimension. I learned that a company's position in the market cannot be separated from the problem it solves for people. A product may have dozens of attributes, but people ultimately choose it because of what those attributes mean to them. The strongest positioning begins by understanding the functional and emotional need being met, then building a brand strategy around that meaning.
Over the years, advising companies across manufacturing, technology, consumer products and government services, I began seeing the same pattern again-and-again: good businesses often work against their own success.
An owner may know where they want the company to go, but sales is pursuing something different. Marketing is communicating a different idea. Operations is constrained by decisions made elsewhere. Finance is measuring the business in ways that obscure what is actually profitable. Product development is creating things the market doesn't really need.
Sometimes there isn't even a clear strategy to begin with. Decisions are made because they seem urgent, because they've always been done that way, or because one department is solving the problem directly in front of it.
This is especially common in closely held businesses. The owner spending more time reacting to the business than directing it.
That's what led me to The Alignment Advantage™.
Strategy Aligns & Guides
We begin with Strategy
The work begins by understanding where the business is today and determining whether there is a strategy—and if there is, whether it actually aligns with the market. When necessary, we develop a stronger strategic position around the real needs that the business is capable of meeting, including the emotional needs that often matter more than product attributes alone.
Translated to Positioning in the Market
From there, brand strategy gives that position meaning in the minds of the people the business wants to reach. But a compelling position is only useful if the organization can deliver on it. Sales, Operations, Finance, Product Development and Marketing all need to support the same strategic direction.
A Guiding Northern Star
The result is more than a better brand or a better marketing plan. It gives owners and managers a clearer understanding of why the business needs to behave a certain way—and the ability to make decisions intentionally rather than simply reacting to what happens next.
Alignment is Control and Momentum
That's the Alignment Advantage: aligning the business, the brand and the market so the people responsible for the business can regain control of it and move it forward with intention, direction and accountability.