A little less strategy, a little more action; why most successful companies fail at strategy

I used to believe that strategy was a necessary component for success in business. We’ve been taught this in 50,000 books about strategy. We’ve looked to the military, been inspired by Sun Tzu, ogled the luminous foresight of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. We’ve been sold the desirability of disruptive innovation and the lustre of expensive consulting firms. Some of us have attended expensive business schools, and waded through the countless hours of intelligent insight that has been poured into business strategy.

If strategy is worthy of this pedestal, allow me to confront you with a simple question:

If strategy is crucial to the existence of a business, how come so many successful companies are awful at it?

I regularly interview leaders in the businesses that I work with to uncover the good and bad in their organisations. When I ask about their strategy and strategic management processes, the answers are strikingly similar;

“We don’t have a strategy”

“We have a strategy but we never follow it”

“We [the exec team] know what the strategy is, but no-one else in the company does”