The reason most strategies end up as theater is that making them real requires naming what you will not do, which means naming whose pet project gets cut and whose customer segment gets ignored.
Those are power conversations and they rarely happen in the rooms where the strategy document gets written.
So you end up with a 20-page document full of priorities, no sacrifices and a roadmap that quietly accommodates everyone.
Strategy is not about what you want to build. It is what you want to become and by what means you want to get there.
Exactly, and that if often misunderstood.
The reason most strategies end up as theater is that making them real requires naming what you will not do, which means naming whose pet project gets cut and whose customer segment gets ignored.
Those are power conversations and they rarely happen in the rooms where the strategy document gets written.
So you end up with a 20-page document full of priorities, no sacrifices and a roadmap that quietly accommodates everyone.
Exactly! And therefore, the strategy gets much less useful.