For any company, no matter the size or industry, your business objectives are the results you want to achieve. You should live and thrive by a set of values that define the purpose for the business’ existence. These values should be clear in every element of your operations and be embodied in the work your employees perform day-to-day. These objectives should also be clear to your customers and partners – recent Accenture research shows 64% of consumers say that companies that actively communicate their purpose are more appealing.

So, with that in mind, how do you analyse your business plans for the year to ensure they are designed and delivered with your organisation’s mission statement and values at heart? Here’s our guide to aligning an ongoing operational strategy with your business objectives.

64% of consumers say companies that actively communicate their purpose are more appealing than those that don’t.

How to analyse and align strategies with your goals

The first and most important step is to define your business objectives. This list of qualities is simply HOW you intend to fulfil the WHY of your organisation. This list should encompass all areas of your company and be focused on achieving future targets.

Next you need to assess your current strategies across the business. As an example, your sales campaigns should be designed and executed in line with your business’ terms for ethical trading. For a second example, take internal marketing. If your content and social media isn’t in line with your brand purpose, customers and enterprise partners will not be sure about what your business stands for and may seek out a competitor instead.

The last step is to brainstorm how existing processes can be adapted to align with your overall business objectives. Returning to the previous examples, if one of your business objectives is to support local charitable causes, consider emphasising this goal in your sales campaigns. It will give customers a clear idea about why your business exists and may encourage higher sales over time.

Checking if your business strategies are aligned with your overall objectives is important.

The benefits of better orienting your business strategies

Aligning your strategies with your business objectives isn’t just advisable – there are many benefits to ensuring your company structures are in line with your mission statement:

Increased productivity

Employees who clearly understand their role – and how it relates to your wider objectives – will naturally be more productive. Equipping staff with the ‘why’ behind their responsibilities also allows the most talented individuals to find ways to work smarter and more efficiently.

To achieve this result, business leaders need to establish a management process that:

• Allows employees to track performance against their job description and wider company ambitions;
• Sets specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) goals for staff, encouraging them to work towards what’s best for your business and their professional interests;
• Provides strategy visibility along the chain of command and across departments;
• Creates shared accountability between employees and management teams; and
• Communicates expected results clearly during every phase of a project.

Greater strategy efficiency

Aligning your company’s goals and all ongoing strategies, while making these intentions visible, makes it easier and quicker to design and execute new projects. If all plans have to fit within a certain scope, such as having the same management structure in place, it enables management to more effectively allocate labour and financial resources across various projects. At the same time, getting all projects started off on the same foot helps to expose redundant processes and reducing the risk of employees duplicating others’ work.

Your business objectives should be central to all decision making.

Improved talent retention

Many job candidates assess an organisation’s mission statement when choosing whether to work with them or not. Aon Hewitt’s ‘2018 Trends in Global Employee Engagement’ report specifies that an employee’s ‘value proposition’ within an organisation ranked in the top five defining factors for staff engagement worldwide.

Workers want to know how their work is valuable to their company as a whole. Those who are given this insight into the way their role fits in with organisation can see that they are contributing meaningfully. It also offers the most ambitious a clear route to self-improvement and advancement within your company.

Knowing their ‘value proposition’ to employers ranked in the top five defining factors for staff engagement worldwide.

Do you need external help to align a strategy with your business objectives?

You can perform this self-reflective process yourself – indeed, it should be one of the core functions of an effective executive team. However, it can be tricky identifying individuals elements of your business strategies that need to be changed from within your operations. It often takes external expertise to assess what could be done differently and how – that’s where Pitcher Partners Newcastle and Hunter can help.

Our full-suite of professional business services has helped organisations across Australia to drive real change and better align operational strategies with business objectives. With our specialist advice, we can offer peace of mind that your company is heading in the right direction. To learn more about our business services, contact the Pitcher Partners Newcastle and Hunter team today.