Insight · Strategy
Zoom In, Zoom Out: Why Strategy Fails Between the Boardroom and the Factory Floor
Most strategies do not fail in the plan. They fail in the space between the plan and the decisions people make every day. A strategy can be clear, well argued and approved by the board, and still have almost no effect on what actually happens on the factory floor, in the lab or in the conversation with a customer.
A presentation is not a strategy
A strategy presentation describes where the company wants to go. A strategy is something else: the pattern of decisions the company actually makes. Which projects get the best people, which customer gets the delivery slot when there is not enough capacity for everyone, which supplier gets the long-term commitment, and which risks the company agrees to take. If those decisions do not change, the strategy has not changed, whatever the slides say.
What I learned from both ends
I learned this from two very different positions. In an electronics company, I led strategic planning across a division, while managing work that cut across the whole organization, including risk management through business-critical events. In moments like these, the distance between the plan and reality disappears very quickly. Either the strategy helps people decide under pressure, or it is quietly put aside.
Later, as VP Operations and Engineering in an automotive AI startup that grew from about 30 to about 130 employees, I saw the same thing from the other side. The strategy was clear: to become a supplier that an automaker could trust. What made it real was a long series of small decisions about suppliers and people, each of which either brought us closer to that goal or pushed us away from it. The full story is in the case study.
Zoom out, zoom in, and connect the two
Over the years, I came to see the leader’s work in strategy as two movements and the connection between them. Zooming out shows the direction: the market, the competition and the long-term choices. Zooming in shows the reality: the details, the numbers and the constraints that the plan did not anticipate.
The hardest part, and the most important one, is connecting them. Every detail should be understood in light of the direction, and the direction should be corrected in light of what the details reveal. A leader who only zooms out produces plans that do not survive contact with reality. A leader who only zooms in solves problems efficiently, but cannot tell whether they are the right problems.
The four legs of the table
There is a lesson I return to often: everything is connected. The small decisions, the strategy, the execution and the choice of people are the four legs of the table, and each one is critical. A brilliant strategy carried out by the wrong people will wobble. Excellent execution of the wrong strategy will wobble too. Strategy work that ignores any one of the four legs is not finished.
From strategy to Monday morning
- Translate the strategy into a few decisions. For each strategic goal, name the decisions that will change because of it, in investment or in people.
- Give each goal an owner and a measure. A goal without an owner is a wish, and a goal without a measure is a debate.
- Review the strategy where the work happens. Part of every strategy review should take place on the floor, with the people who carry it out.
- Watch the small decisions. When a manager has to choose under pressure, the choice shows whether the strategy has reached them.
- Prepare for business-critical events in advance. Agree ahead of time who decides and according to which priorities, so that the strategy guides the response instead of being suspended.
Questions for the leadership team
- Which decisions changed in the last quarter because of our strategy?
- Would a team leader on the floor describe our priorities the same way the management team does?
- Do we review the strategy only in the boardroom, or also where the work happens?
- The last time we faced a crisis, did our strategy help us decide, or did we put it aside?
A closing thought
Strategy is not a document written once a year. It is a way of making decisions, every day and at every level of the company. The test of a strategy is not how convincing it sounds in the boardroom, but how clearly it can be seen in the small decisions on the factory floor.
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This article reflects the author’s personal opinion only. It is general information, not professional advice or a recommendation to take any action, and any use of it is the reader’s sole responsibility.