Is your strategy good enough to eat?

Clarity of strategy is key to execution. It needs to be shared in bite-sized chunks so it can be consumed and feed action. I once wrote a marketing plan which was well received. My manager then told me it should align with the company’s strategy. I said I could do that but I hadn’t seen the company’s strategy. He told me I couldn’t see it because it was secret. He wasn’t joking. Making your strategy “ready to eat” drives strategy implementation.

Your strategy may not be a secret but it still may not be as obvious as you think. The high-level buzzwords may make everyone happy at the executive retreat but if they don’t translate into the type of action that gets results then the cake is not worth eating. A clear strategy gets implemented. A vague strategy gets ignored.

Here are some simple questions to ensure if your strategy is good enough to eat:

• Is your strategy directly related to what people do each day?
• Does your strategy help you make choices and prioritise?
• Do budget priorities match strategic priorities?
• Do your performance measures tell you if your strategy is on track?
• Can your team tell you the organisation’s key strategic goals and how they impact them?
• Does your team share goals with other teams in ways that drive collaboration?
• What have you stopped doing this year (or period) to focus on a new strategic goal?
• Which current projects or programmes will really drive growth or better performance?

If you struggle to answer any of these questions then your strategy probably isn’t tasty enough. It isn’t implementation-ready. If strategy really were a cake what ingredients would ensure that it fuels the right activity and results for your organisation? Here are a few thoughts:

• Create a strategy worth implementing that makes genuine choices.
• Use plain language everyone can understand – say what you mean.
• Generate excitement. If executives can’t get excited don’t delude yourselves that anyone else will.
• Make a single person accountable for every initiative. If no one wants to own it then it won’t happen.
• Define clearly what success looks like. Don’t assume a common understanding.
• Align your measures to your strategic goals and get rid of ones that don’t align.
• Break every big goal down into small ones with accountability for completion.
• Every strategic goal has to have the budget and resources to make it happen or it is just a dream.
• Manage delivery with a clear governance cadence based on results not activity.

Clarity of strategy is key to execution and strategy execution or implementation is what gets results – not creating a flash slide-deck. Sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes to test that your strategic choices will deliver for you. We can help. Strategy implementation is what we do at Hague Consulting. Please get in touch for a chat. Enquiries@hague.co.nz

Phil Guerin, Consultant/Director, Hague Consulting Ltd. © Hague Consulting Ltd 2026. If you like this content, subscribe to our blog – it’s free!

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