Going into the process, Tolko recognized the strategic planning at the corporate level would be easier for them
than executing it throughout 22 business units. The organization was siloed and it was important to develop a
cross-functional understanding between teams. The business units were each in separate geographical locations
across the four vast western provinces of Canada, and had been managed in a very decentralized way, with
business unit managers accustomed to a high degree of autonomy and profit/loss responsibility. Brad wanted
employees to ask—and answer—the question “What do I have to do to make my peers successful?” The
Leadership Team knew that early and frequent communication was crucial to the employee engagement
needed for alignment and they wanted to pre-position the organization for the heavy lifting of strategy
execution.