Entrepreneur

5 Reasons Why Strategy Fails
July 2, 2008

By Nilofer Merchant

Understanding the ‘worst’ practices helps small businesses do better.

I’ve watched strategy being developed within companies like Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and Nokia. I’ve seen strategy created by individuals. I’ve seen the big suits of Bain and McKinsey at work. I’ve seen it done well, and occasionally I’ve seen it done poorly. Having read more than 100 books that define the best thinking on strategy, I’ve noticed that following the existing methods often doesn’t yield success.

It’s not just the methodology. Here are five reasons strategy fails in small businesses, in midsize businesses, and in large enterprises:

1. The Blame Game

How many times have you seen a strategy move into execution, then fail? Typically, the postmortem involves blame. It was poor leadership. We didn’t execute correctly. We had bad market data. Our customers decided they wanted something else. The timing was off. There are hundreds more, and you’ve heard many of them.

The original publication can be found at this link.

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