Why Do Strategies Fail to Deliver Results?
For over two decades, Strategy in Action has worked alongside business leaders through both their triumphs and their setbacks. One pattern surfaces again and again: plenty of organisations craft ambitious strategy, but far fewer turn it into action that delivers real results.
In the second half of 2024, as organisations grappled with unprecedented disruption, we set out to understand why. In-depth interviews with senior executives from $100 million+ revenue businesses across industries revealed a systemic dysfunction. One that starts with how strategy is framed at the core and cascades outward into the processes, tools, and leadership dynamics meant to support it. It shows up in four interconnected layers, each amplifying the weaknesses of the one before, which is why piecemeal fixes like a new tool or a training programme so rarely produce lasting change.
This report maps that dysfunction in full, then turns to the organisations that have broken the pattern, reimagining how strategy is developed, communicated, and embedded into everyday culture so that it becomes a genuine driver of long-term success.
Access the full report.
If your strategy still lives in a document or an annual offsite, we invite you to rethink what it could really achieve.