“No One Knows Your Strategy”
An Unconventional Perspective
Six years ago, MIT Sloan Management Review published a shocking article based on a study by MIT Sloan School of Management.
The study revealed that “only 28% of executives and middle managers responsible for executing strategy could list three of their company’s strategic priorities.”
Some 30% of the leaders could not list even one.
So, as a leader, you may believe that you have a strategy. But it may be only the emperor’s new clothes.
Many experts have commented the article indicating that effective strategy communication is a must.
But let’s look at it from another angle.
If these executives find it difficult to recall their company’s strategic priorities, why don’t they clarify them? Why don’t they ask questions?
My theory is that for many executives, strategy is only what they do occasionally.
They don’t realize that strategy is their only job, their only priority.
I’ve seen it in many companies. Even top executive believed that reaching short-term goals is more important. Although they wouldn’t admit it out loud.
When I was working on my latest book, I found a scientific study that proves: when someone has two goals, one short-term and one long-term, the latter always prevails.
A CEO should not only remind their team about the strategy, they should remind them that strategy is their only job.
Check out my new book, Red and Yellow Strategies: Flip Your Strategic Thinking and Overcome Short-termism. You can receive it for free only till the 15th of July! Find out more here.
Read also: Sense the world through your customers’ eyes. How to find out what your customers really want
