How Better Strategic Alignment Helps Your Business Grow Faster

Business success requires more than having qualified people and using the right tools. Managers must also achieve strategic alignment between each business unit or department and organizational objectives. This approach can improve communication, facilitate decision-making, and ensure optimal resource allocation.

Strategic alignment has the power to shape organizations, driving change and innovation. At the same time, it can streamline workflows, reduce friction, and foster team collaboration. As a result, it may increase efficiency across teams and departments in the long run, leading to business growth.

However, achieving this kind of cooperation is a challenging feat. As a manager or CEO, you need to put all the pieces together without losing sight of the big picture. For example, align marketing and sales, IT and business development, or other processes, and then connect the dots to lay the foundation for organizational success.

What Is Strategic Alignment and Why Does It Matter?

Most startup founders handle everything themselves or have a small team in charge of sales, customer service, HR, and other activities. But as their business grows, these processes increase in complexity and can no longer be handled by one or two people. When that happens, you need to hire specialized staff and build multiple

teams, each with a well-defined role.

Your work continues, though.

You must also align your business activities, teams, departments, and resources with the company’s mission. These elements should work cohesively together and in line with your organizational goals. That’s what strategic alignment is all about.

As the Harvard Business Review (HBR) notes, a company’s purpose mostly stays the same over the years. However, its internal structure and strategies continue to evolve; therefore, you want to ensure they align with your organizational mission.

Strategically aligned companies are 72% more profitable than the average business. They also grow faster, retain more clients, and have more engaged employees.

On the other hand, organizational misalignment can hurt work performance, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. Moreover, misaligned companies generate 50% lower returns on investment and lose $109 million for every $1 billion spent on projects.

The lack of a cohesive strategy can affect nearly every aspect of business, including:

• Tax efficiency

• Resource allocation

• Enterprise risk management

• Performance monitoring

• Sales and marketing

• Product development

• Customer service

• Employee retention

• Vendor relationships

• Organizational growth

Let’s say a company’s finance and project management teams are misaligned. Each business unit does a great job, but the communication between the two could be faster and more efficient. These problems can lead to budgetary challenges, poor resource allocation, incorrect financial statements, etc.

For example, the project management team may plan and execute projects without considering the limitations set by the finance team. This behavior may result in overspending and inefficient resource allocation, affecting the company’s bottom line.

How to Achieve Strategic Alignment

Strategic alignment ensures everyone in the organization moves in the same direction. Over time, it can help eliminate silos, optimize resources, and drive business growth.

However, this process is more complex and requires continuous monitoring, evaluation, and adjustment. Organizations must continually assess and improve their alignment to adapt to changing market conditions, customer needs, and internal dynamics.

Getting started is the hardest part, but you don’t have to do it all at once. First, use the strategies below to align project management practices with other business activities for higher efficiency.

Evaluate Your Processes

Start by identifying the areas where business alignment is needed. These may include, but are not limited to:

• Project management

• Talent retention

• Human resources

• IT systems/technology

• Communications

Let’s say you want to align your email marketing efforts with your business goals. First, try to determine what works and what doesn’t.

For example, you may realize your email response rate is lower than the average. This problem can affect your ability to reach your target audience and generate revenue.

One solution is using an email checker and verification tool to identify invalid, inactive, or non-existent email addresses. Next, you can remove those contacts and focus on the customers who read and respond to your emails.

The result? Higher deliverability rates, lower marketing costs, and more accurate customer data.