There are dozens of things to consider when you are planning an exit from your company. Most of the time you’re thinking about the valuation, the operations, the people, and whether or not the chemistry with the company you’re selling to or merging with will work.
There is one big, gigantic process you must go through prior to even considering an exit strategy. What does your brand stand for? Does it align with the culture of your organization? Do you communicate on a regular basis with the people in your organization and do they understand what your corporate North Star is? If you answer no to any of these questions you should take a step back to better understand how to align your company brand and culture.
This process requires a fair amount of diligence and understanding regarding the personality of your brand. In other words, you must treat your brand as though it were another person or a role model. All brands and cultures are unique, they are not like other brands and cultures. It doesn’t make sense to look at some other brand and say to yourself, let’s be like that brand or let’s be like that culture. It simply does not work that way. The Brand and Culture Alignment Toolkit (BCAT) consists of instruments that measure and map the shared perception of a team’s Brand and Culture, and methods that apply this information to enhance team performance. Based on an analysis of all of your team members’ responses to the BCAT Survey, the BCAT Team Report describes what your team would be like if it were a single “virtual person” at work, a Role Target, doing its best to keep all of its promises and reach all of its goals. It provides insights and actionable guidance that can help the leaders and members of this team work together more effectively.
Once you’ve identified the role target for your company and have a clear picture of what the brand stands for, only then can you develop your employee base and the culture of the organization to become more like the brand personality.
The next step is to ask for a personal alignment plan where each individual commits that they will act and behave in a manner that is consistent with the brand promise. So, on a daily basis, each employee commits to doing two or three things that move them closer to that brand promise. It’s only then that your company brand and culture will align.
You will see better morale, a more engaged workforce, higher productivity, lower absenteeism, and a greater value for your organization. This should always be the first step in developing and mapping out a plan for an exit, and a real danger by not performing this task prior to any plan for exiting your company. #getbcat #newroi #alcini