By Guest Contributor Johan Grönstedt

“Strategy” has become the corporate world’s favorite catchphrase, tossed around in boardrooms and conference halls with abandon. Yet, behind the polished PowerPoint presentations and eloquent speeches lies a stark reality: most leaders haven’t a clue what it truly means to execute strategy effectively. And they’d certainly never admit it.

Call it fate or a series of questionable career choices, but I’ve found myself deeply entrenched in this world. My name is Johan, and I’ve devoted my professional life to the pursuit of excellence in strategy execution. As a seasoned management consultant and former Chief Strategy Officer, I’ve spent countless hours (more than I’d care to count, frankly) dissecting the complexities of strategy, cutting through the jargon to uncover the real secrets behind successful execution and transformative change.

Let’s start by acknowledging the elephant in the room: we’re not short on innovative ideas or good intentions. What we lack is the ability to translate those ideas into tangible results. It’s a startling fact that nine out of ten strategic initiatives fail to meet their objectives on time[1], and organizations, on average, only achieve 63% of their projected financial outcomes[2]. This execution gap is a drain on the global economy, costing us an estimated $1 million every 20 seconds[3]. But the consequences go far beyond monetary loss. Our inability to execute effectively hampers our ability to address all things that are important to us, including the pressing global challenges of our time. The stakes are high; the potential consequences – dire.

And all the while, the world is simultaneously refusing to stand still. The pace of change is in fact accelerating, and our struggles with strategy execution are becoming increasingly apparent – and increasingly costly. We find ourselves on the sidelines, mere observers, often overwhelmed by the relentless demands and challenges of the modern world. But must we resign ourselves to this fate? I, for one, refuse to accept it.

Recognizing the Root Causes

After years of study and application, coupled with my unique vantage point at a leading strategy execution software company, have given me firsthand insight into the common pitfalls that derail even the most promising strategies. Through our platform, we’ve had the privilege of working with and observing thousands of leaders and teams across diverse industries and cultural landscapes. This experience, combined with rigorous data analysis, has revealed three primary culprits behind poor outcomes:

1. Lack of Prioritization: In the pursuit of success, organizations often fall into the trap of chasing every shiny new opportunity. Limited resources mean you can’t pursue every goal effectively. The hard truth is that spreading yourself too thin leads to diluted efforts and diminished results. Ironically, focusing on less achieves more.
2. Misalignment: A company’s strategy is only as strong as its weakest link. If everyone is rowing in different directions, you’ll make the wrong kind of waves. Understanding of a company’s strategy often diminishes as you move down the hierarchy, leading to confusion and misdirected efforts. Fewer, clearer goals make it easier to align everyone, from the C-suite to the front lines.
3. Inefficient Steering Systems: The greatest challenge in strategy execution is the relentless pull of daily operations, which consistently sidelines long-term goals. Without a mechanism to counteract this force, pivotal improvements are perpetually deferred in favor of the urgent, but often less impactful, demands of the day-to-day.

These challenges, while seemingly simple, have profound consequences for organizations and society as a whole. The Execution Revolution offers a proven methodology to overcome these obstacles and achieve lasting strategic success. 

A Revolutionary Recipe

Strategy and execution are two sides of the same coin, each meaningless without the other. In this article, I’ll share a streamlined, potent methodology for successful strategy execution, honed through years of research and real-world application. It consists of four easy-to-grasp components – think of it as a minimalist’s guide to not messing things up.

The first two components, Most Important Goals (MIGs) and Strategic Initiatives, form the strategic foundation. They answer the questions of WHAT you aim to achieve and HOW you plan to get there.

Most Important Goals

Exceptional execution begins with narrowing the focus. You can’t be everywhere at once. This discipline starts with the top team designating two to three Most Important Goals. Any more, and you drastically decrease your chance of success. Each subsequent team then identifies 2-3 goals that directly support the team above, creating a streamlined set of goals across the company. This ensures alignment and focus, empowering each team to make progress without losing sight of the bigger picture.

Strategic Initiatives are the ‘big bets’ that can dramatically alter a company’s trajectory and significantly influence its financial performance. They go beyond incremental improvements, acting as actionable pathways to realize MIGs and illustrate how you’ll achieve your objectives. These initiatives make the strategy understandable for everyone, concentrating efforts and clarifying the rationale behind your strategic direction.

The third and fourth components, Key Activities and Strategy Stand-Ups, form the execution engine. They answer the questions of what you do to focus your efforts and how you sustain change and momentum over time.

Key Activities are about identifying your high-impact actions. It’s based on the principle that a small number of activities will drive the majority of your results. It’s essential to identify these high-leverage activities and focus your efforts there.

Key Activities provide clear direction on pivotal actions for the team and the organization. Teams should pinpoint a select number of impactful actions aligned with overarching company goals and initiatives. These Key Activities then serve as the foundation for steering the team’s efforts and monitoring their progress toward strategic success. Activity-based steering aligns daily efforts with strategic imperatives, ensuring each team member understands their role in the grand scheme.

Strategy Stand-Ups are short, weekly meetings (15-30 minutes) that focus exclusively on progress toward the team’s MIGs, emphasizing the Key Activities. These meetings foster a culture of commitment and drive real change by highlighting successes and failures, enabling course correction and continuous improvement.

They are, however, not your typical weekly check-in. They sidestep operational details, cutting to the heart of where true value is created. They serve as a sanctuary from daily chaos, a dedicated time to focus solely on actions that drive strategic milestones.

Moving Strategy Execution into the 21st Century

Ninety-five percent of the tools we use for strategy are still PowerPoint and Excel.[4] This poses a significant stumbling block. Digital tools for strategy execution enable organizations to quickly roll out strategic changes, maintain alignment across all levels, and actively steer towards goals. Their potential, however, remains limited by the digital maturity within the C-suite. The cost of lagging is high.

Now, you’ve got to ask yourself: Are you actually going to act on what you’ve learned?

Take an honest look at your current practices. If you’re hesitant to admit there’s a problem, you’re already behind. Got a team? Great. Hand them copies of this article and dive in. Commit to the four concepts. Focus on less to achieve more isn’t just catchy; it’s the way forward. The same holds true if PowerPoint is still your primary Swiss-army knife for strategy.

The point of calling this an Execution Revolution is that strategy relies on the voluntary contribution of your entire organization. No matter who you are, you can’t execute it alone.

If you want to start today, pick one thing that, if improved, would matter more than anything else. Reflect on the impact of that goal provided it was given more exclusive space in your mind, your attention, and your actions. Spend the week really thinking about what that one great thing would be and why that matters so much.

If you feel that goal is truly worth achieving, then check back for more content on how to make that happen on a grand scale. I’m easy to find and passionately do everything I can to help more ambitious individuals like you achieve what’s most important for you.

Welcome to the Execution Revolution—where your actions today shape the world of tomorrow.

[1] Intellibridge. ”90 Percent of Organizations Fail to Execute Their Strategies Successfully” IntelliBridge. https://www.intellibridge.us/90-percent-of-organizations-fail-to-execute-their-strategies-successfully/

[2] Mankins, Michael C., and Richard Steele. “Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance” Harvard Business Review, July 2005. https://hbr.org/2005/07/turning-great-strategy-into-great-performance

[3] Project Management Institute. “Pulse of the Profession 2018” PMI.org. 2018. https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/about/press-media/press-release/pulse-of-the-profession-2018-media-release.pdf

[4] Accenture. “CEOs Identify Combination of Data, Technology, and People as Future Growth Driver, Yet Only 5 Percent of Organizations Realizing Its Value” Newsroom, 2023. https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2023/ceos-identify-combination-of-data-technology-and-people-as-future-growth-driver-yet-only-5-percent-of-organizations-realizing-its-value

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Suggested Reading

In the whirlwind of modern leadership, where the to-do list never ends, focusing on what truly matters is a lost art. Enter The Execution Revolution: your guide to cutting through the chaos with this revolutionary approach to strategy execution.

This book is a manifesto for excellence in the face of overwhelming odds. With over 80% of company strategies failing to reach fruition, this book is not just timely; it’s necessary.

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