Peak Performance Culture

Chapter 2Horizontal Alignment

My presumption is that all business owners began their business with two things: the passion (or, perhaps, simply desire) that I discussed in the last chapter, and a sincere belief that their concept would be successful. The odd “I needed a tax write‐off” scenario aside, I am confident that everyone who starts a business believes that they have a product or service that will resonate with the market and make them money. The good news is that the easiest of all five metrics is testing this belief by creating horizontal alignment. The less good news is that horizontal alignment – while easier than the other four metrics of peak performance cultures – is still very challenging. The truly bad news is that few organizations effectively accomplish even this metric and, worse yet, few even try. Thankfully, since you picked up a copy of this book, you are the exception!

Horizontal alignment, combined with vertical alignment (discussed in the next chapter), forms the organization's framework. It is the fundamental knowledge of three things: what's happening in the market, what are the measures of our success, and what is our plan for linking those two (Figure 2.1). Achieving alignment means ensuring that your business plan responds to the market in which your business exists in such a way as to generate the desired measurements on your success scoreboard. I approach horizontal alignment in a sort of nonlinear, reverse engineering way. To borrow from Stephen ...