Make Your Winery's Strategy Your Reality

Strategy is critically important in every business. But it is meaningless if it resides only on paper or worse, "in your head". One of the primary challenges of any owner/ operator faces is how to live his business strategy, aligning goals with successful execution.

A few months ago I read an HBS article interviewing the authors of One Strategy: Organization, Planning and Decision Making - Iansiti of HBS and Sinofsky of Microsoft. Their comments were impressive, and I immediately ordered the book.

In One Strategy we learn that companies have two strategies -- one explicit; the other implicit. The former is what's directed by management and visible in presentations and marketing plans. The latter is reality -- the actual execution of the strategy by team members based on their decisions and behavior.

A winery is therefore "living the strategy" when both explicit and implicit are aligned. Iansiti argues that strategy is a function of the way the company operates: "Strategy therefore becomes the product of the firm's incentives, structures, and patterns of behavior, not the other way around."

Are your winery's compensation structure, processes and patterns conducive to rewarding your team for making your intended strategy your reality? If so, you are achieving and operating as you set out to do and adapting to ever present change in your company and the industry. If not, you are likely struggling with issues ranging from increasing inventory, decreasing sales, operational inefficiency and/or team turnover.

In my practice, I specialize in aligning strategy with results. If you are struggling with these issues, contact me (360.210.5551 or info@trelliswineconsulting.com) to discuss how we can work together to help you achieve your ultimate vision, enhancing sales and efficiency.