In a recent McKinsey Quarterly article, Jacques Bughin, Tanguy Catlin, Martin Hirt and Paul Willmott of McKinsey wrote an article on “Why Digital Strategies Fail.” In that article they describe five pitfalls that explain why so many companies fail to realize the benefits of going digital that were aspired and hoped for. I briefly summarize…
Business contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are far from being on track, a recent global CEO study by the United Nations Global Compact and Accenture Strategy shows. At the time of formulating the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, 90% of CEOs said they were personally committed to ensuring that their companies lead on the…
The success rate of strategy execution is incredibly low. The fail percentages found in scientific studies range from as low as 7 % to as high as 90 %, with an average of about 50% (as reported in a 2015 review article by Candido and Santos in the Journal of Management & Organization). Even though…
We are on the verge of a revolution in strategy. While the signs may not be widely acknowledged yet, they are clear. And while these signs still mostly reveal the cracking of the old way of thinking, they also give reasons for optimism that something new is on its way. These are the eight signs:…
For already a decade, Simon Sinek’s book “Start with Why” and his “Golden Circle” are wildly popular. Millions have bought the book and tens of millions have watched Sinek’s TED talks over the past years. Furthermore, looking at all the four and five-star ratings, reviews and testimonials, Sinek’s ideas are appreciated too. Despite this great uptake—and also because…
Recognizing that long-term planning doesn’t work anymore in a VUCA world, it is oftentimes argued that more attention should be given to the execution of strategy rather than only its generation. But, like the idea that your strategy should be more agile, we can question whether this is a good idea. Should strategy really move towards…
It is frequently argued that strategy’s holy grail—the pursuit of sustained competitive advantage—is futile in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. Instead, so the argument goes, organizations should focus on agile strategy, thereby realizing a dynamic and continuous stream of short-term advantages. But is this really a good idea? Does making strategy more agile help? And…
The ideas about what strategy is and how to generate and execute it have hardly changed over the past four decades. This is a problem because the world has changed. And it is even more of a problem because research shows consistent low success rates in strategy. So, why do we keep on approaching strategy…
In most organizations it is leaders who are responsible for setting out the organization’s strategy. Because of their position at the top, they have insights and oversight that others in the organization don’t have. Furthermore they have the power and capabilities to make sure that the rest of the organization conforms to the strategy. Therefore, leaders…
If you think about the way strategy has been taught and practiced over the past decades, opera is quite an accurate metaphor. Like opera, traditional strategy is about preparation, planning and perfection and it is a bit of an elitist thing with grandeur being strived for. Opera can be beautiful. But maybe it is not the…
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