Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results

“Conventional Wisdom”: Maybe Not So Wise!

If you’re like many leaders, you’ve bought into the conventional wisdom about strategy execution. It goes something like this: communicate an inspiring vision and realistic strategies, make sure you have an engaged and committed workforce with the skills to do the job, provide high-quality products and services, and focus on the customer to ensure success. Admittedly, it sounds good. But all evidence indicates that something is missing from the equation.

It’s true that these baseline practices are necessary and relevant. Unfortunately, they are not sufficient to ensure successful implementation. Most of the organizations in our study—those afflicted with a strategy-execution gap and those who are ...