The paper begins by discussing what theory, research, and practice reveal about developing organizations that are both highly aligned and adaptive. A conceptual understanding of the sometimes complementary, sometimes antagonistic organizational requirements for alignment and adaptation is the first requisite, and is detailed in the next section. Next is a discussion of what is known from theory, research, and practice about changing organizations. Both these last sections use the history of Apple Computer to ground discussion. The third section evaluates current practice in developing a more competitive organization using a set of design specifications, derived from change theory, which must be met by organizational change methods that seek to develop both an aligned and an adaptive organization. The final section focuses on an analysis of Strategic Human Resource Management Profiling (SHRM), a process for realigning an organization and its human resource management policies with competitive realities developed by the authors at Becton Dickinson and Company.