Strategy Matters

Most leadership teams do not struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because they have too many. Too many opportunities. Too many initiatives. Too many issues that appear important. Too many pressures pulling attention in different directions. And too many reasons to keep adding rather than choosing. That is why the real test of strategy is not whether a leadership team can come up with things to do. It is whether the team can decide what matters most, commit to it fu

Leaders get ahead by delivering results. That's also how strategic gaps get built. Research from PwC, based on a study of 6,000 senior executives, found that only 8% qualified as effective strategic thinkers. A separate McKinsey survey found that only 27% of executives believe their organizations are good at translating strategy into action. Those numbers aren't surprising when you consider how leadership teams are typically built. Leaders earn their roles through operational

I’ve looked for stats on how many small and mid-sized businesses actually have a real strategic plan but haven’t been able to find any....

A Value Proposition helps a would-be client, customer, member, donor, or volunteer (I’ll call them buyers) answer one very important...

There is a significant and positive relationship between a company’s reason for being – its Purpose – and its performance. Business...

Research shows that purpose-driven organizations grow faster than competitors and enjoy higher levels of customer & employee satisfaction.

Your corporate culture is all about your people – management and staff. And specifically, about how they behave and interact with one...

"What’s in it for me?" might just be the most ubiquitous question in the English language. Or any language for that matter. It’s a...

Invariably, strategic plans involve change. And, as anyone who has ever been involved in implementing strategic initiatives knows, 101...

In previous posts we have dealt with three major barriers to successfully implementing a business strategy suggested by respondents to...

As anyone who has ever been involved with a major organizational change can attest, many things can derail a change project – unrealistic...

Essential to making strategy work Strategic thinking not only requires the ability to anticipate or project one, three, or five years...

Both strategic planning and strategic thinking feed decision making. Strategic planning, typically conducted on an annual basis as an...

It probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Communication plays an indispensable role in the successful implementation of a...

Various thinkers have shaped my view of strategy over the years. In this post, I share the wisdom and insight of three strategists who...

Not long ago, we reached out to members of our LinkedIn community to get their thoughts on barriers to successfully implementing a...

In recent posts we have looked at a number of barriers to successfully implementing a business strategy, as suggested by respondents to a...

When I’m working with executives who are determining their strategic direction, I advise that we establish the vision of the future...

It’s becoming clear that strategic “planning” is dead. Or at least no longer particularly useful when approached in the way we’ve done it...

We have the power to decide and act only right now, at this point, at this time, standing here. We cannot act in the future. We can only...