There have been numerous comments made about aligning corporate departments, sales and marketing strategies, and le sujet du jour. It seems everyone wants to compartmentalize the alignment process thereby making it easier and faster to accomplish. Translated, do it the quick and easy way! The result, there is little success or just plain failure.

Alignment should be viewed as a long term process, which when done correctly, can yield incredible results. But first things first, you need a reason to consider taking on the task of aligning your company. The two reasons all owners and managers understand: growth and profit!

You must have certain building blocks in place to align your organization. Start by ensuring you have a mission statement. It must be concise and describe your overall mission. This means a one-sentence only description. Your mission statement is not a marketing plan, business plan, or statement of values.

The first alignment that must occur is ensuring the mission statement and any corporate positioning statements make sense together. That is, the corporate statement should not conflict in any way with the mission statement; it should expound on it. Secondly, your marketing position should also grow out of the mission statement and corporate position and not conflict with them.

It is amazing how few companies can even get to this point. Countless companies, large and small, do not even understand their product/service position in the marketplace. As a result, employees, suppliers, and customers are frustrated with the mixed messages they receive daily. How can a company try to position itself as a provider of premium products/services when they are known as a low-price company or vice-versa? I see it every day even with Fortune 500 companies.

But lets say you are one of the 10% of companies who have achieved aligning their mission statement, marketing plan, product position, etc. You should be happy, right? Wrong! You have only done the easiest parts of alignment. What is the one thing that defeats all attempts to align an organization: corporate culture!! This is true even in small organizations but it is easier to change when there are fewer people involved. There is nothing tougher to do than change an old, large organization with its bureaucracy, fiefdoms, and entrenched beliefs. Some would say it is impossible.

I am not sure it is impossible but it does require tremendous effort and usually some changes in the people. Some of them will not let go of their fiefdom, some will not let go of the way we have always done it, some will not let go of their beliefs and so on. If you want to truly align your organization then the company leadership must make the tough decisions even if it means replacing people.

What are the benefits of a Total Alignment? Organizations which have aligned their processes, mission statement, marketing, sales, corporate culture, etc. have outperformed their competitors and grown at phenomenal rates. Think this is smoke and mirrors? I lead 4 consecutive organizations in 4 separate industries to a minimum 300% and as much as 3,000%+ revenue and profit growth in the first 3 years I was with the organizations. Believe me, it works!

Remember, start with the mission statement and build from there. Make sure you know how your products/services are positioned in the marketplace. And, most importantly, ensure that you align your corporate culture to fit all the other aligned functions. You too can grow at 300% or more!