In this promotional presentation, Dr. Walter V. Murray uses the familiar concept of wheel alignment and the technical metric of drag coefficient—illustrated through a comparison of Tesla and Lucid EVs—to explain why strategic plan alignment is critical for organizational performance. He explains how misaligned wheels increase drag, reduce fuel efficiency, and degrade acceleration, drawing a parallel to how misaligned vision, values, and operational models increase the "drag" on strategy execution. Murray then introduces the Level 1 Vision‑Value Alignment (VIVA) Risk Assessment, a three‑session, three‑week engagement designed to audit a company’s vision statement, values, and operating model for alignment. He shares a client case study where the VIVA audit identified a misaligned strategic initiative, preventing an estimated $3–3.5 million in wasted resources. The video concludes with a clear call to action: schedule a free, no‑obligation planning call via an online scheduler, where Murray will learn about the prospect’s strategic context and customize the Level 1 assessment. The presentation targets CEOs, board chairs, and senior leaders, as well as department heads, emphasizing early‑year alignment to avoid performance shortfalls.
Chapters
You know, I remember going on a long trip. I think I was driving from Michigan to New York. Long trip. And my mechanic recommended that I get an alignment, tire alignment, wheel alignment, right? He said it isn't required, but it's highly recommended because on a long trip, my vehicle could easily be knocked out of alignment just by hitting a pothole or a curb or, you know, a rock or something. He says, so it's best, highly recommended, that on a long trip, um, that you get your wheels and tires aligned. Now, I'm no mechanic, so I, I went with his professional recommendation. Now, I didn't know this, but there are some huge benefits from getting your wheels aligned, right? For example, did you know fuel efficient— I didn't know fuel efficiency and gas mileage could increase by 10% plus. Now, doesn't bother me now since I'm driving an EV, but for those of you that are still driving IC engines, Wheel alignment— I see this internal combustion engines— wheel alignments could improve your fuel efficiency by up to 10%, right? It gives you a smoother ride. When your wheels are aligned, your ride is much smoother, your steering is improved, and your tires of course last longer. Another major benefit is that it reduces The drag coefficient. Yeah, so another major benefit of having good wheel alignment is that it reduces your drag coefficient, right? So I'm no engineer or nothing like that, but I know the drag coefficient kind of measures how effectively, smoothly, how quickly your car could cut through the air, right? It affects things like your acceleration, your 0 to 60 miles. The average vehicle today has a drag coefficient between 0.25 and 0.3. Anything above 0.3, you're probably driving an old clunker, right? Poorly aligned wheels increases the drag coefficient. Now that's not a good thing. Because drag coefficient is better lower, right? The lower the number, the better. You know, there's this big, big competition going on in the EV world between, say, uh, Tesla's Plaid Model S and Lucid. Um, the drag coefficient for, uh, Tesla is like 0.21, and I think for Lucid is like 0.20. And this is back and forth, you know, who's got the best drag coefficient. Because drag coefficient is— it kind of helps your car just kind of cut through the air and get maximum speed and acceleration. And this sounds like an auto show, right? No, it's not an auto show. It's about strategic planning, believe it or not. So when your wheels are not properly aligned, it increases your drag coefficient. Tesla Model S, the Plaid version, the Lucid, these are some really high-performing vehicles, right? I won't tell you which one I recommend or which one I drive, but they're both high-performing EVs with pretty low drag coefficients, and they get to 60 miles an hour in less than 3 seconds. Imagine that. That's just amazing. That's some serious zzz kind of force right there. But even with such high performance, right, a simple thing— well, not simple, but seemingly often ignored thing like wheel alignment can seriously compromise the performance of even the most high-performing vehicle. Let that sink in for a moment because strategic plan implementation is exactly the same way. You may have the most elaborate strategic plan, but if alignment is not at maximum capacity, right, then what you find is implementation will have a high drag coefficient. In other words, it will have low implementation performance, right. Alignment is critical when it comes to strategic plan implementation. So the new year is when organizations plan out, tweak, adjust, modify their strategic initiatives, right? Whether these are major overhauls or minor tweaks, in both cases, strategic alignment is critical. And the first level of strategic alignment There's got to be vision because the vision statement is what initiates the entire strategic plan process, right? So that's where alignment is most critical, is vision. So we do what's called a vision-value alignment assessment, right? And this is where we make sure that your vision and your values align to your operational models. Because if that alignment doesn't take place, what's going to happen is that the performance or the implementation of strategic plan will be seriously compromised. So this time of year, end of year, early new year, as you begin to look at tweaking, overhauling, adjusting your strategic initiatives, or identifying strategic initiatives to pursue this year, it's important that you take some time and do a vision alignment, right? Do a wheel alignment. So last year around this time, I believe it was towards the end of December, first couple weeks of January, we were engaged by a client to help them with this vision alignment engagement. And in the first session of the 3-session engagement, what we do is we do what's called a VIVA audit alignment risk engagement, right? We'll tell you a little bit more about it later. But in the first session of the 3-session engagement, it became very clear, very obvious to us that one of the major strategic initiatives that this company was pursuing really was being championed by the CEO, one of those major strategic initiatives was way out of alignment with vision and value and also out of alignment with the operational model. It wasn't a good fit. We provided a quantitative and qualitative analysis, right? We gave them findings and recommendations and action steps. We gave this to the CEO and his leadership team, and as they implemented the recommendations, it helped them avoid sinking resources, money, manpower, et cetera, into a strategic initiative that was way out of alignment. You know, sometimes you don't see the misalignments that someone who brings a fresh pair of eyes, right? It jumps right out at them. And so of course, we were able to see this misalignment right off the bat, not only because we were a fresh pair of eyes, but because we are experienced and experts in strategic planning alignment. So we were able to help them avoid going down a path that was way out of alignment. I would say, just based on follow-up with the client, that we probably saved them $3, $3.5 million in wasted resources, money, manpower, time, right? So we saved them $3+ million in resources that they were going to commit into a strategic shift that was way out of alignment, that was probably going to underperform. Right? A quick assessment, I would say, you know, as we did follow-up with them 2 or 3 months later, I would say that we saved them from making a huge $3 million alignment mistake. Right? So, That's a little bit about it. So schedule a call with me so I can give you more details on this Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment Risk Assessment. Give me a call. We can talk about how it could potentially save your company some money, or at least if it doesn't save you money, it could help you validate that the path that you're on for the new year, the strategic shifts that you're going to make for the new year our engagement could help you validate that you're on the right path, that you are aligned, and that there are no hidden risks of misalignment, which, like I said earlier, could create significant underperformance. So give me a call. Give me a call. There's a scheduler at the bottom of this, on this page. Pick a date and time that fits your schedule. Let's have a phone call. Let's have a conversation. No obligation. No obligation. Just give us a call. Give me a call. There's my schedule below. Pick a date and time. Let's talk about how we could help you avoid making any major alignment mistakes, missteps in the new year. On the phone call, I'll give you a little bit more information about the process. In the meantime, here's a little bit of information, a little bit of overview of what you can expect on this call with me. And what you can expect, um, if— should we move forward with an alignment risk engagement.
On this call with Dr. Murray, he will learn a little more about your company's strategic plan, your operation model, and your vision statement. Then he will share with you some options on how he and his team can customize a Level 1 Vision Value Alignment Risk Assessment that is specific to your strategic plan, your strategic vision, your strategic values, and your operational model. Typically, this initial call is not more than 1 hour long. For most organizations, 1 hour gives Dr. Murray enough time to make a preliminary determination on how best to customize a Level 1 Vision Value Alignment Risk Assessment for your organization or your team. He will also share with you what to expect during the 3 weeks it typically takes to complete the Level 1 Vision Value Alignment Risk Assessment. Here are some key points about a Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment risk assessment. First, it's a 3-session engagement. These sessions are typically spread out over 3 weeks, but scheduling is flexible and can sometimes be done in less time. Dr. Murray highly recommends at least 3-day interval between sessions. This allows he and his team to analyze the info they gathered in the meetings and write up their reports and findings. Dr. Murray highly recommends that you should include your senior C-level leaders, or any team member who plays a critical role in strategic plan implementation, in these sessions. Before the first session, Dr. Murray will meet with the CEO, owner or board chair, or the senior leader in charge of corporate strategy development. As part of the Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment Risk Assessment, we will audit your vision statement, review your entire strategic plan and conduct some in-depth analysis to determine if your vision statement is alignable and if your operational model aligns with your vision and values. Remember, this is only a Level 1 engagement, so it will not be as rigorous or as comprehensive as a full Level 5 strategy audit. Be sure to ask Dr. Murray about the difference between a Level 1 vision-value alignment risk assessment and a Level 5 strategy audit. So that's it. A quick overview of what to expect on the free planning call with Dr. Murray and a quick look at some key elements of the Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment Risk Assessment. Use the scheduler below to schedule a call with Dr. Murray so he can learn more about your organization and customize a Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment Risk Assessment for your organization. Keep in mind, this is a great tool not only for business owners and CEOs who are responsible for the corporate strategy implementation, But department or team leaders find that the Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment risk assessment is extremely beneficial as they plan their departmental or team strategy for the new year. For example, if you are the human resources director or the marketing director, you can also use this Level 1 Vision-Value Alignment risk assessment. It will help you to make sure your new year's plans for your department or team are in alignment with the corporate vision, values, and operating model. And if you are the only one in your leadership team, then this is even more important for you. So schedule a call below and have a conversation with Dr. Murray before the year is too far gone. Ideally, you'd like to have this conversation with Dr. Murray before the end of January.
So I'm looking forward to speaking with you soon. Make that call quick. Um, uh, you know, you don't want to wait till June when you've already already underperformed for 6 months to find out that you could have averted this alignment mistake and misstep way back in January. So make the call soon. I'm waiting to hear from you. This is Walter Murray. I'm the CEO at Accelerate Strategy and Leadership, Inc.
