Ruthless Consistency: How Committed Leaders Execute Strategy, Implement Change, and Build Organizations That Win

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STOP STRATEGIC PLANNING

Without strategy, execution is aimless. Without execution, strategy is useless.

—Morris Chang

 

I’VE SURVEYED THOUSANDS of business leaders—CEOs, business owners, and Strategic Leadership Team members—asking them the question, “In your experience, do strategic change initiatives more often fail because of poor planning or poor execution?” Almost everyone says, “Poor execution.” Of course. We have good ideas, good intentions, and maybe even good plans . . . but execution is where they so often fail.

There are few better examples than the annual strategic planning charade. Remember the failure rate noted in the Introduction? Between 70 and 90 percent. Why? The most common reason is that once we’ve developed the ...