At a conference in December 2024, a consultant cornered me at the coffee station.
“I help companies with strategy,” he said, handing me a sleek business card.
I asked, “What does that actually mean?”
He launched into a script.
“Synergizing core competencies… disruptive paradigm shifts…”
I cut him off. “But how do you do it? How do you adapt when the plan falls apart?”
He hesitated. “Well, we define objectives, align stakeholders…”
He was staring into his latte.
The silence said everything.
In boardrooms across the world, “strategy” has become a performance. It is a game of polished slides and sweeping visions. Executives spend millions defining the goal—capturing the market, launching the product, changing the world.
But studies show that 70% of strategies fail.
They don’t fail because the vision was wrong. They fail because the execution was nonexistent.
We have become obsessed with the map and forgotten how to walk the territory.
The Illusion Of The “What”
Most strategies fail because leaders stop at the goal.
“Increase revenue by 20%.” “Disrupt the market.”
This is where the confusion begins. A goal is a destination, not a direction. It is a surface-level “what” that is impossible for a team to digest.
You cannot act on a goal.
An engineer cannot write code for “market dominance.” A support agent cannot close a ticket with “synergy.”
The failure lies in translation. The “what” is left abstract, high-level, and distant. It never becomes an actionable reality that connects to a Tuesday morning stand-up.
A true strategic “what” must be translated. It must bridge the gap between the vision in the boardroom and the behavior in the trenches.
If the “what” does not tell your people exactly what to do when they sit down at their desks, it is not a strategy.
It is just a wish.
History Repeats
History is a graveyard of companies that knew what to do but couldn’t figure out how to do it.
Look at Kodak.
They didn’t just know about digital cameras. They invented the digital camera in 1975. The vision was there. The technology was there.
But they were paralyzed. They couldn’t align their culture, their incentives, and their systems with the future they saw coming. They were trapped in their own success.
Compare that to the giants of today. Their success isn’t about having a unique vision. Everyone has the same vision.
Their success is a result of obsessive execution. The seamless integration of hardware, software, and supply chain.
A brilliant strategy is meaningless without the discipline to operationalize it.
The New Definition Of Strategy
The future belongs to the organizations that treat execution as a core competency.
We need to stop hiring people who are good at talking and start hiring people who are good at doing. We need to value pragmatism over charisma.
A modern strategy is not a document. It is a system. And it requires three non-negotiables:
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Translation (The “How”)
- Stop setting vague goals like “be innovative.”
- Start defining concrete actions: “Launch Feature X by Q3. Engineering, marketing, and support are accountable.”
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Iteration (The Loop)
- Your plan is an assumption. Treat it like one.
- Pressure-test your assumptions weekly. If it’s not working, change it.
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Correction (The Safety Valve)
- Build triggers.
- If customer churn hits 5%, do not wait for the quarterly review. Act now.
The best technology companies don’t thrive because they have better ideas. They thrive because they:
- Break big goals into small actions.
- Debate roadblocks openly.
- Pivot instantly when the data changes.
Strategy is not a static object. It is a dynamic process.
From Vision To Reality
The test of a leader is not how beautiful their vision is. It is how effective their execution is.
We are trapped in a cycle of planning, presenting, and underdelivering.
It is time to break free.
Shift your focus. Stop obsessing over the “what.” Master the “how.” Build a culture of accountability. Design agile processes. Empower your team to act.
The future does not belong to the dreamers.
It belongs to the doers.
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