Q: Why is a great business like a great marching band?
A: The players in both organizations are in alignment.
Alignment? Yes, Alignment.
When a marching band passes by in a parade, the columns and rows are in straight alignment, the band members are all in-step, they play in-tune, and they are all playing the same music. Alignment separates the great from the good from the mediocre from the awful. It’s the same in business.
A great business is also in alignment; all the players are aligned on their core foundational elements - mission, vision, and values. Great businesses know where they want to go and have strategies in place to get there. They inspire their people to greatness and unanimity of purpose. They get where they are going with enthusiasm, vitality, and determination. If your business is in alignment – congratulations! If your business is not in alignment then today is the day to get started.
First look at your core foundational elements. Are your mission (the reason the business exists), vision (what you want it to become), and values (the service level and ethical manner in which you treat staff, vendors, and customers) relevant, clear, communicated often, and consistent? If these elements do not exist or have not been utilized since the original business plan was written it is like a marching band with the trumpets playing “Stars and Stripes Forever” and the clarinets playing Beethoven’s 7th. Symphony – in other words cacophony and chaos – you’re out of alignment.
Once everyone is playing the same music (mission, vision, values), it’s time to tune the instruments (align strategies and tactics), rehearse the music (align staff training, accountabilities), practice the marching steps (align policies), keeping the whole enterprise marching to the beat of the same drummer. Soon you will be making beautiful music together. Those watching you march past will applaud with joy at your alignment, spirit, purpose, and joy in accomplishment.
Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, "Front Lines with Larry Galler" Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com
What do you think about this article? Do you agree or disagree with it? Be the first to comment on this article, and share your thoughts with the world. No registration is required to post comments.
1. Healthy parents.
2. Instruction and care of mother by physician.
3. Mother free from overwork or worry.
4. Mother's milk. Gradual weaning by the end of six months.
Whenever you have a company, you'd like you need to do anything and everything to develop that business enterprise and make it much better. The point of possessing a business at the start is to earn...
How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes?Music affects us all. But only in recent times have scientists...
According to Rebecca Gill, Vice-President with TGI Ltd., "TGI
closes the loop on information delivery with Enterprise DSS.
Enterprise DSS is a Decision Support System that is integrated
with TGI's...
Are you ready to start a small business of your own? Starting a
small business of your own is a perfect idea if you dislike your
job, or cannot stand taking orders from other people. But beforee
marching into
Hip hop music is believed to have originated from African music and gained popularity during 1970s. Its key ingredients include beatboxing, scratching, sampling, DJing, and rapping. At times, people tend to...
In addition to great features that rip, convert, and organize
music files, Music Morpher Gold comes with an impressive set of
audio effects to make any music geek giddy. Think Britney Spears
could do...
Rap Music is so popular nowadays, it is the kind of music wherein beats really matter. There are a lot of rap artists in the music industry that became superstars because of their unique rap beats. Everyone of
Music today is definitely up to the mark but a few music fanatics out there feel that it could be better. The industry understands this and has come up with a certain software for these music lovers with...
How you talk, how you sit down, the spot you sit in and who you sit down with might not appear to be significant, but believe in us, it can really make a difference in the way you appear.
You shouldn't let past experience affect future performance though; put a little effort into your meetings, plan an agenda that works and pick a location to suit, and you'll find that it can make the...
The phrase coined by the New Orleans chef Poppy Tooker has never been more true than it is today. "Eat it to save it" - if the industry knows they can sell it, they'll be sure to breed it. Not a...
Financial advice within business is required, namely as a result of the wide range of issues was can either cause tactical or strategic concern. Merger and acquisitions are one area which requires quite...
If you're a board member, CEO, COO or CFO in an industry that is as cut throat as pharma, bio-tech, technology, software, etc., industries you most likely have hired a strategies consultant to step in to...
Global economic turmoil, insider trading and close encounters of the criminal kind; yes the international strategic alliance sector has been pulled in to correct the good, bad and the ugly. Commerce and...
Political and corporate strategies merge and in the end the same 'chaos injection' and 'roadblock' mechanism of controlling the self-proclaimed 'uncontrollable' parallel each other when strategies of war...
As a consultant in the business of structuring companies, setting up strategic alliances for clients, writing business plans and PPM's and taking companies public on the OTCBB, I must admit I've seen my...
There is a gargantuan divide between a public company that is exists and thrives. An company that is merely existing has a stock price that is stabilized by constant promotion and fund raising with every...
Driving down the road our eyes frequently scan the vital instruments on the dashboard that monitor speed, fuel level, coolant temperature, and oil pressure. The modern vehicle also has many more devices...
Wow! You're brilliant! You have a great idea. You've looked at it every possible way to find holes in your logic, fallacies in your assumptions. You know it will work and you can't wait to turn your new...
It always amazes me when I see someone on television holding a press conference - a lawyer outside a courtroom, a businessperson at the launch of a new product. Reporters ask hardball questions. The...
There were four of us at dinner. Three ordered "regular" coffee, the fourth requested "decaf." Every so often a server, carrying two pitchers, refilled the coffee cups and knowingly poured three cups from...
Article: Align The Enterprise & Make Beautiful Music Together Author: Larry Galler Publication Date: 2007-08-01 Total Views: 253 Word Count: 379 Category:Home /
Business / Strategy
Categories
