HBR Guide to Executing Your Strategy

CHAPTER 5

Does Your Strategy Have a Spine?

by Rita McGrath

For all the ink spilled on the concept of strategy, it continually proves to be a surprisingly slippery idea. In practice, leaders often struggle to define and communicate strategies to their team. In their Harvard Business Review article, “Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?” David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad don’t mince words: “Most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage of their business in a simple statement. If they can’t, neither can anyone else.”

Here, I’m going to describe a document that you can think of as a bridge between your strategy and the seemingly endless communications you need to make to get various stakeholders comfortable with backing ...