OWNERS’ ALIGNMENT

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A business owner from Tennessee called me the other day to talk about his company’s 2026 Strategic Plan. Rapt with excitement to formalize the company’s goals, initiatives, and metrics for the upcoming year, the business owner couldn’t wait to share his creation with me. As a prelude to his explanation, I asked if he and his co-owner had designed the 2026 plan within the context of the company’s 2025 performance.

Excitement, quickly turned to embarrassment. They had not done so. In fact, the business owner had not consulted with his co-owner at all on the 2026 plan ideation.

Given the vital importance of the ownership team being completely aligned on their current assessment of the company as well as its predictive input for the future, I recommended that both owners craft a Start-Stop-Keep profile of what each of them thought the company should address during the 2026 calendar year. Here are the abbreviated results.

OWNER

• Start: Implementing a clearly defined sales process.
• Start: Organizing the company by territory.
• Start: Utilizing company software to its full capability.
• Start: Marketing with intent.

• Stop: Duplicating efforts across departments.
• Stop: Over-involving multiple people in tasks that require single-point ownership.
• Stop: Spending money reactively or without clear ROI.

• Keep: Pursuing consistent growth.
• Keep: Emphasizing innovation across the entire organization.
• Keep: Delivering personalized, high-quality customer service.

CO-OWNER

• Start: Implementing a new Employee Handbook.
• Start: Developing clear, consistent internal communication mechanisms.
• Start: Having formal monthly financial reporting meetings.
• Start: Cross training office staff.

• Stop: Leaving the Shop area disorganized.
• Stop: Allowing supervisors to shirk their responsibilities by delegating to subordinates.
• Stop: Underutilizing management expertise.
• Stop: Allowing gossip to undermine the company culture.

• Keep: The Company’s Emergency Response Team to address client issues immediately.
• Keep: Improving routing and scheduling coordination.
• Keep: Enforcing Company policies consistently.
• Keep: Working with the Human Resources Consultant to ensure improved processes and results.

Two business owners with two very different mindsets. For the same company! One with a predisposition for macro business concerns; the other with a penchant for unilateral focus on internal practices.

Doctor Jekyll, meet Mister Hyde. Mister Hyde, say hello to Doctor Jekyll.

Upon reviewing their above-mentioned responses, I naturally recommended they get deeply reacquainted with each other and their innate visions, mission, and goals for the company, to improve their collaborative alignment, before drafting the 2026 Strategic Plan and distributing it to their Management Team.

I wonder what their Management Team’s Start-Stop-Keep responses for 2026 would reveal?

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