Strategy matters more than ever in a world that changes faster than any plan. Waiting for someone else to hand you the answer is not the response. Executives need proximity to the issues that shape their strategy, and you cannot be close to a strategy you did not build. You have to have put the thinking in, argued the trade-offs, and signed the decisions on products, markets and capabilities. That part cannot be outsourced. Four reasons.
Your people already know 80% of the problem
The core issues holding a company back from profitable, sustained growth are already known inside it. Most of the "insider secrets" in a consultant's industry report came from conversations with your own people. If the issues are known, you do not need them repackaged. You need your best people prioritising and solving them together.
The right answer may not be right for you
Strategy is discipline and creativity blended, and it is specific. An off-the-shelf solution that looks good on paper rarely fits the company that has to live with it.
Received plans do not get implemented
Recommendations look neat and rarely happen, because they were not authored by the people who have to execute them. Sweat equity is what makes a project owned at board, functional and business-unit level.
You lose the muscle
A team that rents strategic thinking never develops it. The next time the market moves, they rent it again.
Where outside help belongs
Subject-matter experts are valuable when your team has identified a specific data gap and can ask a precise question. Senior partners are valuable in the room, holding the standard and forcing the trade-off a peer group will not force on itself. That is how we work: the executive team writes the page, the CEO challenges it, the board tests and approves it. Over 25 years, 97% of the clients who built their strategy this way hit the EBITDA targets they set.
Monday
Ask three members of your leadership team, separately, which choice in the current strategy they personally argued for. If none can name one, the strategy was received.
