Smoothing the path to lasting business transformation and ROI
The strategy-execution gap is the discrepancy between an enterprise’s big goals and the actual actions and results it achieves day in and day out. This often debilitating gap comes into focus when leadership realizes that the company’s strategy isn’t effectively translated into meaningful improvements. As a result, enterprises miss opportunities, waste resources, and stifle growth.
Today, many companies attempt to manage the disconnect between goals set by the C-suite yet achieved through work on the ground, using manual, time-consuming, and incomplete processes. This approach to minding the “strategy-execution gap” creates friction in execution and frustration among teams responsible for tracking and reporting on change. Inefficient approaches to strategy-execution are largely responsible for the 392 hours that the typical employee spends in meetings every year. That’s 16 days spent around the conference table that could be spent on execution.
Challenges of Strategy Execution
Traditional strategic planning processes typically move in a single direction, from top to bottom, starting with planning and ending with execution. This approach is effective in a relatively static market because it produces clear objectives that can be disseminated through different departments. But that’s not the world in which most businesses operate. In 2025, the economy is projected to slow, technological advancements are evolving at an unprecedented pace, and customers are demanding more from the businesses they interact with.
Today, businesses need to be agile, able to iterate on goals, identify problems quickly, and execute plans faster to stay competitive. The most common issues we see on the path to true enterprise strategy alignment fall into the following categories.
Lack of visibility
It’s hard to stay motivated, identify what works, and drive progress without visibility into transformation efforts. When goals aren’t being hit, it is often due to a lack of insight into processes, strategies, and changes that can meaningfully move the needle.
More talk than action
Those 392 hours spent in meetings every year? Too often the meetings are called to discuss plans and goals—not how to execute plans or align with strategy execution software and other tools that can support real change.
Confusion and disconnection
Progress can slow significantly when it’s unclear who is in charge of what or who is overseeing individual projects when team members need direction or support. This confusion can lead to inefficiency, missed steps, and a total breakdown of transformation.
Burnout and turnover
Manual
tracking wastes time and talent, potentially leading to major burnout and churn. When teams work harder without getting the desired results, the best talent will look for opportunities elsewhere.
How to Improve Strategy Execution
Business transformation doesn’t have to be mystifying. With guardrails in place and a defined path forward, execution success is practically guaranteed. Best practices for strategy implementation are outlined below so you can skip the guesswork and get straight to the good stuff.
Have a strategy execution framework
Without guidelines, execution becomes confusing. Individual team members are left to decide what the priorities are, and overall strategy becomes uncoordinated. Instead, define the logical approach for your organization and team and outline all steps to completion. This eliminates confusion and establishes a roadmap that makes sense.
Manage change
Strategy implementation often involves change, but ineffective change management can spell disaster for business transformation. Managing change at the enterprise level requires understanding your team, current processes, and improvement goals. Start by having conversations with team members to understand what may be causing resistance and explain the “whys” behind each change being made. From there, organize education and feedback sessions so that the dialogue continues every step of the way.
Invest in strategy execution software
To stay aligned, monitor progress, and help teams adapt to changes, strategy execution software is a necessary execution management tool. A dedicated software solution can help teams overcome strategy implementation challenges by creating a single source of truth and unifying all relevant information in one user-friendly interface. By providing visibility, defined goals, and quantifiable progress tracking, business transformation software streamlines strategy-execution and drives results.
Coordinate and share information
The success of strategy-execution depends on understanding how to facilitate coordination and information-sharing within complex, often geographically dispersed business organizations. However, managers frequently lack the time or motivation to share information, which is why they must be supported by software with appropriate access controls and data-sharing capabilities.
Assign clear responsibilities
Clear responsibility and accountability are essential for successful execution. Leaders must ensure that everyone knows their role in the business and process transformation. This includes defining what each role is doing when, why they are doing it, and to whom they will report or ask questions if they run into problems.
Create a culture of continuous improvement
A culture of continuous improvement creates adaptability, innovation, and operational efficiency. These qualities are essential for long-term success in today’s dynamic markets and beyond, making continuous improvement crucial for effective strategy execution. Organizations that embrace continuous improvement can refine processes, enhance quality, boost productivity, and ultimately gain a competitive edge.
Case Study: How Shibumi Helped a $30B+ Enterprise Eliminate the Strategy-Execution Gap
Strategic Goal: Improve cost discipline and align investment with corporate priorities.
Strategy Execution Challenge:
- Decentralized delivery across $30B+ enterprise, including six legal entities.
- Ongoing shift from a regulated, fixed-return environment to disciplined capital management.
- A growing need to manage investments efficiently in a rapidly changing market and capital-raising environment.
Results Shibumi Delivered:
- Provided company-wide transparency on investment requests, cost basis, and available resources.
- Maintained a continuously updated baseline of scoring, investment decisions, and initiatives in execution.
- Enabled consistent and value-focused decision-making across leadership and disparate teams.
- Validated value realization vs. initial commitments to render a complete picture of progress and ROI.
The Importance of Agility
Organizations don’t just need to execute their goals—they need to do so quickly, with the ability to pivot as needed. Given current market volatility, the days of using mountains of spreadsheets to track information and dozens of PowerPoint presentations to communicate it, requiring an army of people to maintain these tedious, manual processes, are gone. Businesses succeed when they are agile, able to fail quickly, and iterate on goals and strategies to drive progress in the face of constantly changing markets. Agile strategy execution requires access to all the latest information, and this data must be available for everyone who needs it, whenever they need it.
The savviest companies connect strategy with real-time performance information to generate always-accurate briefing decks. As competition increases and resources become more constrained, it will be these connected, self-aware enterprises that can grow and create ROI across transformations. Providing accurate information faster to drive executive decisions is a key advantage and will help to close the strategy-execution gap for companies willing to invest in solutions that can deliver this crucial insight.
Bridge the Strategy Execution Gap for Good
Shibumi allows strategy leaders to monitor and manage strategy-execution alignment across the entire organization, no matter where teams are located or how many initiatives are underway. We’ve designed our solution not just to provide visibility, but to also be adaptive and empower leaders to pivot strategy when needed.
By continuously aligning the work being done with the organization’s strategic objectives in user-friendly, real-time dashboards, Shibumi helps leaders optimize strategy through data-driven insights while monitoring performance and tracking execution benchmarks.
In a complex business environment, where the tech stack is continuously expanding, a single transformation solution can support process optimization, mitigate employee frustration, create accountability, and promote a culture of continuous improvement.
We’ve seen what the right execution management tools can do for businesses poised for lasting transformation, and we’re confident Shibumi can help your enterprise execute on your big goals.