How to align HQ and Local market teams?

Wanna have aligned HQ and Local market teams?
You have 2 options.
Pick one:

1/ You can live in the ivory tower, preaching brand building yet setting yourself soft targets.
2/ You can align your KPIs with the stretched targets that you gave markets.

If you want the respect of the markets, you know which one to pick.

I’ve ignored this matter for a few years, until I was involved in a project to analyze KPIs for teams across many markets.

I was sitting in a regional role driving a massive change in the way local sales teams operated.

They had received much tougher targets than before.
I decided to link my KPIs to theirs.
I could have chosen different ones but it wouldn’t have been fair.
We drove that change with full buy in from the market.

Did I lose something in my bonus? Yes.
Did I feel good in being on the same boat as the market? Yes.

You can observe the boat safely from the shore……or you can help to steer the boat in the storm.

Brands are built bottom up.