Business model means a plan put in place for the successful operation of a business. In other words, it is a conceptual structure that speaks to the overall purpose of the business in terms of certain parameters such as why does the business exist? Who does the business serve? What does the business offer and how is the business going to achieve the purpose or the goals and objectives for which it was set up? Peter Drucker, the management guru says a business model is supposed to answer questions like who are your customers? What value can you add or are you adding to your customers? And how do you want to make sure you make money for your shareholders and stakeholders?
So, business model alignment therefore means that all elements of a business are arranged in such a way as to best support the fulfillment of the organisation’s long-term purpose. This means that the whole organisations from top to down and across, i.e. vertically and horizontally, are moving in the same direction which means there must be an alignment between the top leadership as well as the lowest level employees in terms of business model alignment. Also, across the organisation horizontally, the teams, the individuals that make up the organisation are all working in a mutually reinforcing manner towards the same goal.
On the other hand, sustainability means something that is maintained at a particular level for a period of time. Sustainability can mean in terms of how the company presents itself, how long the company has been in existence, how business is being done without negatively impacting the environment etc. So, in terms of sustainability, it can be that the company is able to survive over a long period of time based on the processes they put in place.
The key activities that make it important for an organisation to ensure alignment of its business models are:
- Communication
- Leadership by example
- Inclusion and inclusiveness. How inclusive is your organisation? And without aligning in both the internal and external disequilibrium in the operations of the organisation? Internally, the employees would be working at cross purpose whereby their behaviour is also at variance with the various strategies, policies and processes and then ultimately, the organisation would not be able to achieve its mission, vision and corporate goals.
If there is no alignment also, i.e. the internal disequilibrium, even externally too, the business will have issues with meeting the external stakeholders’ expectations. It is important to align the business model with what is happening outside there because when there is no alignment, the pull-push factor within the organisation will be unhealthy and it would be destructive to the organisation’s operation.
Strategies that organisations can put in place to effectively align their businesses:
- Identify a common purpose and the values that will guide the company’s operations.
- There must be top leadership commitment. As a leader, learn how to take ownership. Leadership at all levels means you take responsibility for your role and even the role that is not at your disposal. When the business is not moving well, you don’t ignore the junior workers because you feel they do not know anything about what is going on, some may have good ideas about how some of your processes can be evolved or improved upon.
- Unity and Accountability: There must be that united and shared mindset about how business is done. There must be a common purpose, the values that are shared. In other words, you have a shared and mutual understanding of what the business is all about.
Impact of business alignment on the sustainability of an organisation
Without alignment, the way company conducts and executes its business will be at variance with sustainability agenda and narratives. What the business professes would be different from what it does in practice. And so, if you are not aligning to your business processes, in the long run, you would not be able to achieve the goals and objectives of the business. Business alignment is important in order to sustain your organisation.
The role of HR in business alignment
It is important to know where HR comes in, in regards to business alignment from the top management’s vision, goals, objectives and the work culture that they create to make sure people can express themselves; work towards the vision and avert any vices that may come against or try to attack the vision.
After an organisation has defined its vision, mission, objectives, strategies, systems and processes, the implementation and execution would be done by people. And this is where HR comes in. How do we mobilise the organisation’s human resource to achieve these goals? You have to look for the appropriate people strategy and plan. Put in place those policies and processes needed in order to drive the strategy by achieving the vision and mission because the business environment is not in the back end; it is always in the state of flux and it is always very dynamically volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The volatility enables HR to be proactive and take ownership. HR must be aware of the policies and processes that have been put in place, the enablers, that would make those objectives to be achieved.
The unpredictable nature of the environment makes it imperative that HR would continuously be looking at the existing policies to address the shifting realities and introduce new ones that will help their businesses. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, HR had to proactively devise ways to emplace the policies by reviewing and introducing new ones that support the new realities in the workplace. The ability of HR to manage the employees work from home and not lose the culture of the organisation because there would be a problem when an organisation loses its culture. Some of the peculiar issues and challenges for the HR professionals within the organisation are identifying those things that need to be done well in order to meet expectations of both the internal and external customers.
Impact of business alignment on employees
Without business alignment, employees will naturally be working without any structure. Since structure drives process; they will be getting frustrated and may eventually leave the organisation as a result of no structure. So, it is important that business alignment be put in place so that employees would know where they are and ensure that everybody is working towards achieving the same goal.
“This thought leadership piece is culled from the CIPM radio programme, ‘The Office.’ The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the Guests and do not represent the views of CIPM.”
