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© Copyright Forbes 2009 1
Strategy and OperatiOnS in the enterpriSe:
Closing the Alignment Gap
© Copyright Forbes 2009 2
Survival in today’s complex business environment
demands effective and decisive action. Using clear,
accurate and accessible information, companies can
develop a stronger competitive position by effectively
adjusting their strategies and processes to respond to
changing market conditions.
But to accomplish this, they need the visibility and focus to ensure that their strategic priorities are in line with their operational realities. Does the company have the right resources in place to manage growth? Is front-line infor-mation readily available to drive strategic decisions? How are risks or regulatory challenges being managed?
Despite agreement on the necessity of aligning strategy and operations, many companies still face significant barri-ers that may prevent them from achieving this. Executives on both sides of the strategy/operations aisle express
concern that strategic priorities may be out of sync with operational realities, in particular in critical areas such as risk management and talent allocation and retention.
Intensifying this split are the sudden shifts companies have had to make to deal with the impact of the global recession and resulting economic volatility. But it is clear that many executives believe the time to more closely align strategy and operations is now, to protect the company in the short term and to help it map out the long-term growth initiatives for the eventual economic recovery.
To identify the specific challenges enterprises face in closing the gap between strategy and operations, Forbes Insights, in association with SAP, surveyed more than 200 C-level and senior executives at global enterprises with annual revenues exceeding $500 million. An additional ten on-the-record and off-the-record interviews were con-ducted with senior executives to obtain first-hand insights into how companies are managing alignment issues.
Key FindinGs• Economic volatility has put companies under greater pressure to align strategy and operations. This alignment could be
more important post-recovery as they ready their plans to capitalize on new market opportunities.
• Changing market conditions that affect strategy and operational execution are the number one barrier companies face
in aligning strategy and operations. Other top barriers cited by executives include: added pressure from the current
economy on short-term costs versus longer-term return on investment (ROI); lack of availability of timely, accurate data;
lack of effective communication of strategic goals to operational employees; and operational risks and opportunities that
are not incorporated into overall corporate strategy.
• Alignment gaps may also arise due to differences in strategic and operational goals. Asked about short- and long-
term priorities, strategic functions focused on competitive differentiation, while operations is coming under increasing
pressure to boost efficiency and manage costs.
• There are concerns that employee recruitment, retention and training are not aligned with strategy, or that resources are
not allocated properly to ensure that the workforce can achieve strategic goals.
• Managing regulation and risk is another area of concern. Executives indicated that regulatory compliance issues
frequently impact strategic execution. A failure to incorporate changes to risk models into strategic plans may further
hamper alignment.
© Copyright Forbes 2009 3
The findings highlight the struggles—both short-term and long-term—many large organizations must overcome to ensure enterprise-wide alignment. Moreover, deeper analysis reveals crucial differences between the perceptions and priorities of strategy executives and their counterparts in operations.
Feeling recessionary pressuresNo discussion of corporate strategy and operations can take place without considering the impact of the ongoing global recession. Clearly, falling demand, financial pressures, and organizational “rightsizing” have caused companies to shift their strategic priorities and put additional demands on operational departments to increase their efficiency and manage their costs.
Nearly all corporations (93%) indicated they had updated
or revised their corporate strategies and priorities to address current economic pressures. (Fig. 1) In addition, 83% said that the recession had put them under additional pressure to focus on aligning strategy and execution. (Fig. 2)
With these strategic changes in place, the question arises of how well companies are prepared to capitalize on new opportunities that may come about as the recovery from the recession occurs. A little more than half of respondents (51%) said that their organizations had an updated plan in place to guide strategy once the economy turns around, and 41% said they were currently working on the plan. (Fig. 3) Just 6% said there was no recovery plan in place.
Bridging alignment gapsWhile the recession has put additional demands on com-panies to align strategy and operations, it also has created
Valero energy: growth DepenDs on IntegratIonThe past ten years have been busy ones for Valero Energy Corp. Through a
carefully orchestrated series of mergers and acquisitions, Valero grew from
a regional company operating in only one state into North America’s largest
independent petroleum refiner and marketer with sales of $119 billion.
Integrating dozens of newly acquired companies into a unified enter-
prise required Valero to discard some traditional beliefs about the relationship
between strategy and operations. “Many companies believe that strategy and
execution are separated by a single step,” said Valero CIO Hal Zesch. “In real-
ity, there are at least three critical steps. These intermediate steps are often
overlooked because they are complicated and because the insight required
to make them work is difficult to obtain. The first step is developing a busi-
ness model based on the enterprise strategy. The second step is developing a
business process based on that model. The third step is executing the business
process. There’s a lot more involved than just strategy and execution.”
Valero follows a formal process for identifying and overcoming opera-
tional barriers that would impede enterprise strategy. “We’ve seen other
companies try to grow at this pace and fail because they don’t have the
knowledge and the will to manage the steps between strategy and execu-
tion,” said Zesch.
Assimilating new acquisitions quickly and efficiently is an essential
part of Valero’s strategy, said Zesch. “Our rule of thumb is that it takes us
three months to integrate a new company into our enterprise system,” he
noted. “We integrate everything—every piece of equipment, every purchase
order, every sale, and every item in the warehouse. Everything and everyone
becomes part of one unified system in 90 days.”
Figure 1. Given the current challenging economy, has your company updated or revised its corporate strategy and/or priorities to address these pressures?
Figure 3. Does your organization have an updated plan in place to guide strategy once the economy turns around?
Figure 2. Has the current economic situation put you under additional pressure to focus on aligning strategy and execution?
• Yes• No• Don’t know
• Yes• No
• Yes• Working on one• No• Don’t know
7%
93% 83%
51%
16%
1% 2%
41%
6%
© Copyright Forbes 2009 4
Pitney Bowes: Beyond the Postage meterLong known for its ubiquitous postage meters, Pitney Bowes has trans-
formed itself into a $6.3 billion global technology enterprise, acquiring
more than 80 separate companies in recent years. The success of this
acquisition-driven evolution is highly dependent on creating extremely
tight linkages between strategy and operations.
“We have found that operational efficiencies are enablers of strat-
egy,” said Mike Monahan, Pitney Bowes’ chief financial officer. “For
example, our operational cost-reduction efforts make it possible for
us to invest in key strategic initiatives that improve the customer expe-
rience. In this environment, customer retention is critical, so that is a
strategic advantage.”
Directly linking strategy and operations also enables the com-
pany to develop and test prototypes quickly and more cost-effectively,
shortening the product development cycle, and creating potential compet-
itive advantages. “We can leverage our existing infrastructure to deliver
new products—without having to build a new business from scratch,”
said Monahan.
Changing market conditions that affect strategy and operational execution
Current economy has put added pressure on short-term costs vs. rOi
timely, accurate data is not available
Operational employees do not understand strategic goals
risks/opportunities identified by operations not incorporated into strategy
Figure 4. What are the primary barriers that need to be overcome to align strategy and operations within your organization:
0% 30% 60%
19%
21%
22%
29%
46%
19%
25%
28%
20%
43%
20%
18%
18%
36%
48%
additional gaps to overcome. In particular, sudden, unex-pected shifts in customer demand have put enormous stress on companies to manage their costs, resulting in short-term thinking that is less focused on long-term returns than immediate bottom-line impact. The financial pres-sures being felt on the front lines may, in fact, be driving a wedge between strategy and operations.
Asked to identify the primary barriers to aligning strat-egy and operations, executives pointed immediately to changing market conditions that may impact their com-panies’ execution, which was cited by 46% of respondents. (Fig. 4) Second on the list was pressure on short-term costs versus ROI caused by the current economy (29%). These were followed by availability of timely data (22%), oper-ational employees not understanding strategic goals (21%), and risks and opportunities identified by operations not being incorporated into strategy (19%).
Digging deeper into the results, there was often diver-gence between the barriers cited by operations and strategy groups—discrepancies that may, in fact, be contributing to the misalignment. Economic pressures were felt most acutely by operations teams—36% of those who identified themselves as operations executives felt that added pres-sure on managing short-term costs was a major barrier, compared to just 20% of those who said they work in strat-egy who cited that point. Meanwhile, strategy was more concerned with the availability of information—28% of strategy executives noted the lack of timely, accurate data as a barrier, compared to 18% of operations executives who noted that barrier.
Additionally, as fourth and fifth items on the list dem-onstrate, both groups worry that their priorities aren’t important to their counterparts. Companies may be sty-mied when strategic goals are not communicated effectively to operations teams, and when the experiences of front-line operations groups are ignored by those responsible for crafting strategy.
disagreements over current prioritiesGaps in perception visibly surfaced when executives were asked to rank their current strategic priorities and their cur-rent operational priorities. While the priorities that fell into the top five of each category were consistent, their rank-ings were often significantly different. In many cases, this
• Overall • Strategy executives • Operations executives
© Copyright Forbes 2009 5
further demonstrated the gap occurring between strategy’s desire to meet the challenges of the marketplace and opera-tions’ responsibility for containing costs.
Strategy and operations executives were in very close agreement over their companies’ current strategic priorities. (Fig. 5) Unsurprisingly, more than half of the respondents chose “staying competitive in a challenging market” as their top strategic concern, followed by increasing efficiency and managing costs.
But the strategic initiatives often did not match their stated operational objectives. Choosing from a separate list of operational priorities that aligned to the strategic issues, a separate set of goals emerged. (Fig. 6) For example, while staying competitive was the top strategic priority today, its operational counterpart—“identifying and addressing shifts in the competitive landscape”—was the fourth high-est operational priority, named by just 23% of respondents.
Instead, current operational priorities were clearly focused on how companies can do more with less. The top
Prudential: Changing direCtion at a moment’s notiCeIn today’s volatile economy, market conditions change so quickly that tra-
ditional planning cycles can seem outdated. “Three-year plans, annual
plans—they won’t keep you in the game,” said Steve Marenakos, a senior
vice president of annuities at financial services giant Prudential. “Market
conditions and fluctuating interest rates, for example, have forced us to
review our short and longer- range plans and make adjustments as nec-
essary. You’ve got to act fast, and that means keeping your enterprise
strategy and operations aligned.”
The real challenge, he said, is communicating effectively with the
various business partners involved and explaining the tradeoffs in clear,
business terms so everyone understands the potential risks. “For example,
if you choose a lower-cost technology solution, you might save money in
the short term, but it could make your batch cycle run longer and run the
risk of not getting your trades completed on time,” said Marenakos. “All
of this has to be factored into your decision-making process as you strive
to achieve that balance between strategy and operations.”
Staying competitive in a challenging market Cost containment
increasing efficiency and performance improving overall efficiency and/or performance
Managing and/or reducing costs Maximizing profitability
re-evaluating products/services to increase competitiveness identifying and addressing shifts in the competitive landscape
improving financial performance new product development
Figure 5. What strategic priorities are most crucial to your organization today? Figure 6. What operational priorities are most crucial to your organization today?
0% 30% 60% 0% 30% 60%
18%
30%
44%
44%
54%
19%
33%
40%
43%
52%
18%
28%
47%
46%
56%
19%
23%
29%
46%
47%
22%
25%
33%
40%
46%
16%
21%
26%
51%
47%
• Overall • Strategy executives • Operations executives • Overall • Strategy executives • Operations executives
© Copyright Forbes 2009 6
two operational objectives—cost containment and improv-ing overall efficiency and performance—are both short-term goals driven by bottom-line stress. While this may be driven by the global recession, it may also be setting up barriers that are keeping full alignment from taking place.
distortions also appear in Future prioritiesMore disparities were revealed when the executives were asked to rank what their most crucial strategic and opera-tional priorities will be 12 months from now. This could be an area of concern for companies looking to create greater alignment across their organizations as they seek to capital-ize on post-recession growth opportunities. In particular, they may need to make operations teams less focused on costs and more aware of identifying new opportunities that may arise.
Looking ahead 12 months, the need to stay competitive in a challenging market again topped the list of strate-gic priorities, although the percentage was markedly less
West Marine: Keeping custoMers happy on land and seaWest Marine, the world’s largest boating supply retailer, attributes much
of its growth from a garage-based business to a publicly traded, multi-
channel retailer to providing better customer experiences than any of its
competitors. That often means shipping products direct to customers who
could be sailing anywhere in the world, and it would seem like a natural
service to ship those products to the store nearest the customer’s next
destination.
But there was a problem. The company’s processes did not support
shipping orders direct to stores.
“It seemed like a no-brainer, but we weren’t able to do it,” said
Ashlee Aldridge, West Marine’s CIO and SVP of direct sales. “Multiple
organizational units and departments are involved in the order-taking
process, and there were barriers we had to overcome. So we got all the
parties together and we blocked out a plan that didn’t require a lot of
high-end technology to make it operational. We used the technology we
already had, and we made it work.”
Staying competitive in a challenging market improving overall efficiency and/or performance
increasing efficiency and performance Cost containment
Managing and/or reducing costs new product development
improving financial performance Maximizing profitability
re-evaluating products/services to increase competitiveness identifying and addressing shifts in the competitive landscape
Figure 7. What strategic priorities will be most crucial to your organization 12 months from now?
Figure 8. What operational priorities will be most crucial to your organization 12 months from now?
0% 30% 60% 0% 30% 60%
22%
31%
31%
42%
45%
17%
27%
31%
30%
40%
48%
26%
35%
44%
42%
23%
29%
29%
37%
39%
30%
26%
31%
27%
37%
47%
17%
32%
37%
33%
• Overall • Strategy executives • Operations executives • Overall • Strategy executives • Operations executives
© Copyright Forbes 2009 7
than chose it as a current priority. (Fig. 7) Among oper-ations executives, however, it was actually their second priority, slightly behind increasing efficiency and perfor-mance. Meanwhile, managing and reducing costs, a clear priority in the recession, fell to fourth place among opera-tions executives, cited by 30% who see it as a concern a year from now.
Again, the need to be competitive appears to be far less important as an operational objective, particularly with operations executives. Identifying and addressing shifts in the competitive landscape ranked fifth on the list of oper-ational priorities 12 months from now. (Fig. 8) It is worth noting that it was chosen by 17% of the operations execu-tives, less than half as many as picked “staying competitive” as a future strategic priority (42%).
dealing with regulatory issuesAnother area of concern for companies may be how they manage regulatory and compliance issues. Organizations face a constant flow of new laws that impact their business practices, particularly in areas such as finance, accounting, and environmental impact.
In this survey, nearly six out of ten executives (58%) strongly agreed (23%) or agreed (35%) that regulatory issues keep them from successfully executing strategy. (Fig. 9) But few executives cited compliance as either a strategic or an operational priority—it was toward the bottom of the list of both current and future concerns. Yet this may be a
Overall
Strategy
Operations
Figure 9. Regulatory issues keep us from executing effectively on our strategy.
0% 50% 100%
• Agree/strongly agree• Neither agree nor disagree/don’t know• Disagree/strongly disagree
significant impediment to the success of strategic initiatives and operational execution as the number of global regulations that require compliance continues to grow, and compliance will likely require greater strategic and operational mind share. Companies may want to manage this area more closely, as operations groups will be under greater pressure to ensure compliance without hindering strategic success.
dissatisFaction over talent managementStrategic and operational excellence often depends on hav-ing the right talent in place to execute corporate goals. Yet many executives in the Forbes Insights survey took issue with their organization’s workforce management in areas such as recruiting, retention and training.
More than one in five executives surveyed (22%) said their company’s recruiting and retention efforts did not accurately reflect current or updated strategic goals. Furthermore, a quarter (25%) indicated that their organiza-tions’ training and development programs didn’t align with strategic goals. (Fig. 10)
This may not be surprising. Workforce reductions and hiring freezes have been key elements of the cost-cutting
59 20
57 28 15
21
58 25 17
BlueScope Steel: clear SignalS in a turBulent marketWhen the global recession hit and market demand for building materials
softened, BlueScope Steel made a strategic decision to accelerate relin-
ing one of its key blast furnaces. The reline, which extends the facility’s
operational life by 20 years, together with continued investment in the
company’s flagship brands, reflected a long-term view that, despite short-
term turbulence, the market for steel products would eventually stabilize
and grow.
These decisions were shared and discussed with the steelmak-
er’s multiple operating units by the executive leadership team, which is
responsible for aligning strategy and operations across the enterprise.
Tania Archibald, BlueScope’s head of corporate strategy, said the “long
lead time, long payback investment decisions” sent clear signals to the
market, local communities, and stakeholders that BlueScope “was in it for
the long haul.” That clarity, she said, “provides certainty to our custom-
ers—and to our sales and manufacturing teams—over the longer term,”
enabling the company to maintain a strong competitive position in a rap-
idly shifting market environment.
© Copyright Forbes 2009 8
measures companies have had to take through the current recession. With staffing taking a backseat to other mea-sures, executives are not necessarily focused on talent issues. For example, recruiting, retaining, and training employees ranked 12th on the list of current operational priorities and only moved to 9th on the list for priorities in 12 months.
Yet with economic recovery, companies can expect additional pressure to retain their most valued employees and they will face a more competitive market for recruiting new talent. So aligning human capital management to stra-tegic and operational goals may be more important than ever for future success.
managing risk eFFectivelyRisk management appears to be another critical area in which executives are less certain about the capabilities of their companies to respond effectively—another possible gap between strategy and operations.
Figure 11. Changes to risk models are immediately incorporated into revised strategic goals.
0% 50% 100%
Figure 10. Do your organization’s talent recruiting and retention programs accurately reflect current or updated strategic goals?
Do your organization’s training and development programs accurately reflect current or updated strategic goals?
• Yes• No• Don’t know
• Yes• No• Don’t know
• Agree/strongly agree• Neither agree nor disagree/don’t know• Disagree/strongly disagree73%
22%
5%
67%
25%
8%
58 27 15
42
Kelley Blue BooK: Tuning up alignmenTOver the past 14 years, Kelley Blue Book has transformed itself from a
regional automotive trade publisher into a well-recognized consumer
brand for vehicle valuation. The company’s expansion, driven by its
successful website, now includes e-commerce, information syndica-
tion, software development, auto dealer services, and manufacturer
consulting.
Rapid, ongoing transformation has required constant fine-tun-
ing of the alignment between strategy and operations. “We operate in
two volatile industries every day; the Internet business and the automo-
tive industry. To maintain our stronghold in both, it is essential that we
continually align our critical business units such as sales, marketing, and
Web-based operations,” said Paul Johnson, the company’s CEO and pres-
ident. “With the immense growth our company has experienced in just
the last three years alone, we put processes in place to ensure operational
alignment, which ensure both profitability and success.”
The company recently launched an online car-shopping site—“The
Trusted Marketplace”—that includes more than 1.1 million used-car
classifieds and new- and used-car inventory from 10,000 auto dealer-
ships. “The strategy is leveraging information and extending our trust
in the marketplace through a unique business platform,” said Johnson.
“Facilitating the buying and selling of millions of cars is an enormous
undertaking that required a staff of project managers and meticulous
operational alignment. Working closely with our well-organized staff,
we were able to launch this new consumer marketplace and manage its
growth with ease.”
© Copyright Forbes 2009 9
christiaan rizy direCtOr
stuart Feil editOrial direCtOr
Brenna sniderman Survey Manager
mike Barlow repOrt Writer
methodology
Figure 12. Does your organization use enterprise risk management tools and/or processes to identify risks and opportunities and assess their potential impact?
As noted earlier, executives surveyed believe a sig-nificant barrier to alignment is the fact that risks and opportunities identified by operations are not incorpo-rated into strategy. Yet this barrier may be an ongoing issue for many companies. More than 40% of respondents did not agree with the idea (were either neutral, disagreed, or strongly disagreed) that their organizations are incor-porating changes to their risk models into revised strategic plans. (Fig. 11)
Moreover, some executives indicated their compa-nies were not using risk management tools or processes to identify and manage risks. (Fig. 12) This finding high-lights potential alignment problems as risk issues may not be fully considered in current strategic and operational decisions. As companies manage through the current economy, and as they prepare for the economic recovery, the role of managing risk in daily and strategic decision making is increasingly important to aligning operations and strategy.
conclusion: aligning strategy and operationsUndoubtedly, differences exist between strategy and oper-ations, and while economic volatility may be making alignment more important, its repercussions may also be driving a wedge between the two groups. Gaining a clearer picture of shifting customer demand may relieve some of this stress, while opening up additional lines of commu-nication can ensure greater transparency between strategic priorities and front-line risks and opportunities.
This can also be realized when companies achieve greater clarity in strategic and operational priorities. In today’s envi-ronment, divisions can occur when operations teams are focused on containing costs at the same time that strategic priorities center on staying competitive. To capitalize on post-recession growth opportunities, companies may need to bring these groups closer together by giving both strategic and front-line units a clearer view of changing market dynamics.
Companies must also be aware of other areas where gaps can occur that impede efficient decision making. Regulatory compliance can challenge strategic success, but when operations teams understand and address reg-ulations, they can execute to goals more successfully. Acknowledgement of operational risks as part of strategic planning is important to ensure aligned and realistic opera-tional and strategic goals. Workforce recruitment, retention, and training can be more closely aligned to operational realities when transparency exists between strategic and development priorities.
Successful alignment requires companies to have a clear view of strategy and operations, the plans and the activities. Only with increased visibility can businesses identify the barriers to alignment and close the gaps that may be keep-ing them from competing more effectively.
• Yes• No• Don’t know
74%
21%
5%
the information in this report is based on the results of a survey conducted in
June and July 2009 by Forbes insights in association with Sap. Forbes insights
received responses from 206 executives and decision makers at leading global
enterprises in the americas (36%), europe/Middle east/africa (32%), and asia/
pacific (32%). in addition, one-on-one interviews were conducted with another
ten executives at companies of this size.
nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) held C-level titles, including CeO,
COO, CFO, and CiO. their areas of responsibility included corporate management,
corporate strategy, business operations, r&d, finance, purchasing, sales and mar-
keting, human resources, and information technology.
© Copyright Forbes 2009 10
demographicscompany size (by revenue)
FunctionJoB title
location
0% 25% 50%
0% 25% 50%
CeO/president/managing director
COO/head of operations
CFO/treasurer/comptroller
CiO/technology director
CMO/head of marketing
Other c-level executive
Svp
vp/director
head of business unit
head of department
Manager
Other
Business operations
Finance
Corporate management
Corporate strategy
Sales and marketing
information technology
purchasing/procurement
human resources
Other
• $500 million–$999 million• $1 billion–$4.9 billion• $5 billion–$9.9 billion• $10 billion–$19.9 billion• $20 billion+
• Americas• Europe/Middle East/Africa• Asia/Pacific
12%
1%
24%
3%
1%
4%
1%
10%
2%
12%
13%
17%
9%
4%
42%
3%
1%
2%
24%
14%
1%
28%
28%15%
14%
15%
36%
32%
32%
© Copyright Forbes 2009 11
ResultsWhat strategic priorities are most crucial to your organization today?
0% 30% 60%
What strategic priorities will be most crucial to your organization 12 months from now?
0% 30% 60%
Staying competitive in a challenging market Staying competitive in a challenging market
increasing efficiency and performance increasing efficiency and performance
Managing and/or reducing costs Managing and/or reducing costs
re-evaluating products/services to increase competitiveness improving financial performance
improving financial performance re-evaluating products/services to increase competitiveness
analyzing and managing risk across the enterprise Fostering innovation
Maximizing allocation of human resources Finding/serving/retaining customers
Finding/serving/retaining customers analyzing and managing risk across the enterprise
Fostering innovation identifying merger/acquisition opportunities
identifying merger/acquisition opportunities
promoting collaboration within company and across business partnerships Maximizing allocation of human resources
driving globalization
driving globalization
addressing regulatory challenges
encouraging sustainability/corporate social responsibilityencouraging sustainability/corporate social responsibility
promoting collaboration within company and across business partnerships
Other
addressing regulatory challenges
18%
8%
44%
13%
13%
54%
14%
4%
1%
14%
3%
44%
11%
30%
11%
22%
12%
42%
14%
45%
14%
19%
5%
16%
3%
31%
13%
31%
12%
© Copyright Forbes 2009 12
What operational priorities are most crucial to your organization today? What operational priorities will be most crucial to your organization 12 months from now?
0% 30% 60% 0% 30% 60%
Cost containment improving overall efficiency and/or performance
improving overall efficiency and/or performance Cost containment
Maximizing profitability new product development
identifying and addressing shifts in the competitive landscape Maximizing profitability
new product development identifying and addressing shifts in the competitive landscape
research & development research & development
improving customer experience through sales, marketing, and customer service improving customer experience through sales, marketing, and customer service
executing merger/acquisition opportunities internal collaboration opportunities and business partnerships
expanding into global markets recruiting/retaining/training employees
incorporating risk evaluation and management into operations incorporating risk evaluation and management into operations
internal collaboration opportunities and business partnerships executing merger/acquisition opportunities
recruiting/retaining/training employees expanding into global markets
achieving sustainability/corporate social responsibility results Complying with applicable laws and regulations
Complying with applicable laws and regulations achieving sustainability/corporate social responsibility results
Other Other
19%
11%
46%
12%
47%
17%
18%
8%
1%
17%
4%
29%
12%
23%
11%
23%
11%
37%
16%
39%
16%
18%
6%
1%
17%
5%
29%
14%
29%
13%
© Copyright Forbes 2009 13
What are the primary barriers that need to be overcome to align strategy and operations within your organization?
Who is primarily responsible for resolving alignment issues between operations and strategy at your organization?
0% 30% 60%
0% 30% 60%
CeO
COO
Changing market conditions that affect strategy and operational execution
CFO
Current economy has put added pressure on short-term costs vs. rOi
CiO
timely, accurate data is not available
Other
Operational employees do not understand strategic goals
no one
lack of clear distinction between short- and long-term goals
risks/opportunities identified by operations not incorporated into strategy
don’t knowlack of communication between front-line operations and strategy
reporting structure is not aligned
risks/opportunities identified by strategy not incorporated into operations
Communication gaps in the supply chain
Budgets cannot support operational goals
Corporate and business unit goals are not aligned
regulatory issues restrict ability to align
Outsourced business processes not aligned with strategy and/or operations
Operational incentives are not aligned with strategic goals
Other
4%
25%
49%
1%
1%
11%
9%
19%
9%
29%
16%
46%
17%
19%
9%
7%
17%
7%
1%
22%
11%
21%
10%
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