A beautiful strategy that can’t be executed is just an expensive piece of fiction.
I’ve seen too many organizations invest heavily in strategy development—hiring prestigious consultants, running elaborate workshops, producing impressive decks—only to watch the strategy die on contact with organizational reality.
The problem isn’t usually the strategy. It’s the gap between strategic intent and operational capability. Can your systems support this? Do your people have the skills? Are the incentives aligned? Is the culture compatible?
Strategy work that ignores execution constraints isn’t strategic—it’s aspirational. Sometimes that’s fine. But let’s be honest about what we’re producing.
The best strategists I know spend as much time understanding constraints as they do imagining possibilities. They’re not less creative for it. They’re more effective.