Why your strategy isn’t broken — your team might be.
Let’s start with the uncomfortable truth:
A brilliant strategy in the wrong hands is just an expensive failure.
I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count.
A founder invests in a well-thought-out growth plan. The deck is solid. The direction is clear. Everyone agrees in the meeting.
Fast forward three months — nothing’s moved. Or worse, things have moved in the wrong direction.
And the blame?
It goes to the strategy.
But the strategy wasn’t the problem.
The team executing it wasn’t ready.
Strategy ≠ Magic
Let’s kill the myth once and for all:
Strategy isn’t a magic pill. It’s a series of hard choices — and someone needs to make them real.
You can have:
- The right roadmap, but the wrong driver
- The right insight, but poor follow-through
- The right funnel, but no one to own it end-to-end
And that’s where most teams break. Not because the thinking was bad, but because execution needs maturity, not just manpower.
Org readiness > Org ambition
I’ve worked with startups that tried to run before they could walk — hiring juniors to do senior-level execution, delegating growth to overloaded product teams, or setting KPIs no one fully understood.
And I’ve worked with agencies where brilliant creative ideas kept dying in the pipeline because account managers weren’t equipped to push them through.
The common pattern?
Ambition outpacing readiness.
Strategy doesn’t fail because it’s too ambitious.
It fails when no one in the team knows how to:
- Prioritise what matters
- Say “no” to distractions
- Communicate across silos
- Own outcomes beyond their job title
Great teams make imperfect strategies work
The flip side is also true — I’ve seen decent (even average) strategies succeed wildly because the team behind it was:
- Aligned
- Skilled
- Trusted
- Empowered
A team that communicates clearly, iterates fast, and knows how to close loops can make a lot of things work.
Even when the strategy isn’t perfect, they adapt and deliver.
Because ownership beats perfection. Every time.
Before you blame the plan, check the players
If your strategy “isn’t working,” ask yourself:
- Who’s responsible for executing it?
- Are they senior enough to make cross-functional decisions?
- Do they have bandwidth? Or are they buried in BAU?
- Are your incentives aligned with your goals?
- Are people being set up to succeed — or just assigned tasks?
You may not need a new strategy.
You may need to upgrade your people, your structure, or your culture of accountability.
What this means for founders and marketers
Before you look for the next shiny playbook, ask yourself:
“Do I have the team to execute this well?”
If not, pause.
Either grow the team to meet the ambition, or scale the ambition to match the team.
Because the best strategy in the world is still just a theory — until the right people bring it to life.
And if you’re not sure what your team can execute, or where the gaps are, well… you know who to Ask.