Best Practice Series: Strategic alignment

The 21st century brings a unique and unprecedented set of challenges and potential opportunities for organizations. 

The competitive landscape is increasingly global in scope. Today, even small or midsize companies are challenged to compete on a global scale. The number of multinational corporations has doubled since 1990.1 Growth opportunities are more prevalent in developing regions of the world where the middle class and new consumers are emerging rapidly. In fact, the global middle class is expected to grow by 172 percent from 2010 to 2030.2 At the same time, there are shifts in the available talent pool and workforce demographic. An aging demographic in the West is yielding to higher proportions of college graduates coming from Latin America, Russia, and Asia. Individuals are being asked to do more with less, but they also have higher expectations for their employers and are more mobile than previous generations. Consumers also have higher expectations, and the companies that make the best use of technology and data analytics to better understand their customers and break down barriers will win.