Strategy That Works

7

Bold and Unafraid

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark,” said Michelangelo.¹ The companies we celebrate in this book, and others like them, have managed to escape that fate.

They did it through leadership. Indeed, we would argue that the most critical quality in business leadership today is the ability to consistently close the gap between strategy and execution—or, better yet, to operate as if there is no gap. We are reminded of Warren Bennis’ famous comment: “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.”² This is often taken to mean, “leaders do strategy while managers execute.” But in our view, ...