Why strategic plans fail in execution

Seven out of ten strategic plans never reach the finish line. The problem is rarely the idea: it's how strategy is transformed into everyone's daily work.

The strategy that stays in PowerPoint

Almost every company we work with has a strategic plan. Few can say, halfway through the year, whether the plan is going well. The reason is simple: the document describes where the company wants to be, but doesn't say who does what, with which resources, and by when.

Three warning signs

The first is having more than five priorities. When everything is a priority, nothing is. The second is when nothing is stopped to fund new bets. The third is the absence of indicators that the team can track monthly without requesting reports from accounting.

What works

Plans that succeed have two or three clear bets, an owner for each, quarterly goals, and a short monthly meeting to review the numbers and decide what to correct. It seems like little, but this discipline is what separates companies that grow from those that only plan to grow.

If this topic is relevant to your company, talk to us. An initial conversation helps determine where to start.