THE CHIEF ALIGNMENT OFFICER

Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative of cranberry growers with over 700 members and sales of $2.2 billion in over 100 countries worldwide.

Their former CEO, Randy Papadellis, often refers to himself as the “Chief Alignment Officer.”

He joined Ocean Spray in July 2000 as the Chief Operating Officer and was promoted to Chief Executive Officer in 2003.  Here is how he described the transition,

“I believe the biggest difference between being CEO and COO is the job of alignment.  When I became CEO, I realized very quickly that it was my responsibility to take the many constituencies we have in our business—our grower owners, our Board of Directors, our key suppliers, our key customers, or most importantly our employees—and making sure that they were aligned and moving in the same direction.”

Aligned and moving in the same direction!  My sentiments exactly.

Alignment does not just happen.  It takes lots of hard work and an intentional focus on the issue.  Someone has to lead the charge. 

We think that the CEO is the ideal Chief Alignment Officer, since everything in your company ultimately comes together in the CEO’s office. 

Some of the tasks of the Chief Alignment Officer include:

• Ensuring that the vision is clear and is articulated in an inspiring way
• Ensuring that values are clearly codified and enforced
• Ensuring that the goals and priorities are clearly defined and cascaded to every person
• Ensuring that the strategic, annual, and quarterly plans are focused and aligned
• Ensuring that the organization is structured to execute the strategy
• Ensuring that the measurement systems measure what really matters and that everyone knows how you keep score

Whether your company is an agricultural cooperative, a multinational corporation, or a diverse congregation, creating alignment is mission-critical.  That’s why we call it Job One.