Going Beyond Strategy and Execution

In 1996, Michael Porter famously distinguished strategy from operational effectiveness. In 2002, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan built on this thinking with Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Yet today, in a world reshaped by AI, disruptive technologies, and organizational complexity, even this combined insight is no longer enough.

Strategy without execution is still fantasy. But execution without strategic clarity, external awareness, and dynamic feedback loops is organizational quicksand.

Remarkable companies do three things better than the competition: they delight their customers, they are both strategically and organizationally agile, and they deliver top-quartile profitable growth. We focus here on what it means to build strategic and organizational agility — the connective tissue between strategy and execution.

The New Divide: Strategy Authors vs. Strategy Doers

One of the most damaging divides inside organizations today is the growing chasm between the authors of strategy and the leaders most impacted by it. Strategic plans are often drafted by "NT" thinkers — Intuitive and Thinking types — who excel at theoretical, abstract, and future-oriented thinking. But those strategies must be executed by "ST" and "SF" types — pragmatic operators and people-oriented doers focused on the present and immediate realities.

The cognitive gap between strategic authorship and practical execution is enormous. When asked to name their company's top three strategies or priorities, many employees' top answer is a damning "I don't know."

"Execution today isn't just about hitting goals. It's about managing how strategy is understood, translated, adapted, and acted upon throughout every layer of the organization."

Introducing SPEE: A New Model for Strategic Execution

Organizations need a living system that connects strategy, planning, execution, and evaluation into a dynamic cycle at every level. That system is SPEE:

Strategy answers the "where are we, where are we going, and why are we going there?" questions. Planning defines the "how are we going to get there and by when?" questions. Execution is where the tire meets the road. Evaluation provides feedback to execution, planning, or strategy — helping the organization make any needed adjustments in approach or direction.

At the executive level, leaders develop a corporate Strategy and translate it into a high-level Plan. That Plan becomes the input for the management level's Strategy. Managers build their localized strategies based on the executive plan, then seek feedback upward to validate alignment. Every output at one level becomes the input for the next. Every step needs feedback to ensure the organization remains strategically aligned and adaptable in real time.

SPEE is not a one-way waterfall — it's a dynamic relay race. Strategic and organizational agility requires that leaders put themselves in a "position to notice" — providing direction and purpose, identifying issues, proactively surfacing risks, and helping clarify the inevitable tradeoffs that come from new strategy or change.

The future will not reward companies that merely set goals. It will reward those who create organizations designed for perpetual learning, strategic clarity, and execution at the speed of change. The time to rethink execution is now.