Coherent Business Strategy: Research-Backed Steps to Success

A Coherent Business Strategy Matters
Our organizational alignment research shows that a coherent business strategy drives 31% of the difference between high- and low-performing companies across revenue growth, profitability, customer loyalty, leadership effectiveness, and employee engagement. A robust strategy that earns genuine commitment from the organization is undeniably critical. Yet, the reality is stark: up to 90% of strategic initiatives conceived during a strategy retreat never reach full execution.

People hesitate, priorities shift, and resistance to change naturally arises. Even the most carefully crafted plan is only as valuable as its implementation — and without follow-through, the potential benefits remain unrealized.

Bringing a Coherent Business Strategy to Life
A coherent business strategy only delivers results when it flows through your people and your culture. Savvy leaders make sure that everyone is prepared to embrace and act on strategic priorities in ways that align both with the organization’s goals and with how people actually work. This requires meeting employees where they are — understanding their willingness, motivation, and capacity to change, think, and behave in ways that advance the agreed-upon plan, even when conditions are challenging.

Successful strategy execution demands broad commitment — from the C-Suite to the front line. A plan will only progress as far and as fast as you secure the support of senior leaders, key influencers, managers, and front-line employees. Without that alignment and strategic buy-in, even the most carefully crafted strategy will stall before it achieves its potential.

Coherent Business Strategy Creation and Implementation, Step by Step

1. Know Where You Are
   Change management consulting experts agree: the first step in any change initiative is a deep, honest understanding of your current state. You can’t chart a meaningful course forward without knowing exactly where you stand. Take a candid look at your strategy, culture, talent, business model, marketplace position, and overall readiness to change — only then can you design a plan that truly moves the organization toward its desired future.
   
   
2. Define Where You Want to Go
   Once you have honestly assessed and accurately described your current state, the next step is to create the strategic clarity needed to realize your compelling vision for the future. This is the stage to actively involve key stakeholders in shaping the strategy, answering critical questions that drive organizational focus:
   
   
   • • Company Mission: What is the organization’s fundamental purpose?
     • Strategic Vision: What do we aspire to become in the foreseeable future?
     • Corporate Values: What core beliefs and decision-making principles guide us?
     • Ideal Target Clients: Who are the clients we serve best?
     • Unique Value Proposition: What differentiates us unmistakably in the eyes of our target clients?
     • High Performance: What defines and measures exceptional, undisputed performance in our organization?
     • Big Bets: What are the few critical strategic choices, goals, and immediate actions we commit to as a team?

   When these questions are answered collaboratively — not dictated from above — the resulting clarity becomes a unifying force, aligning people, resources, and energy behind the strategy and driving it forward with focus and commitment.

3. Gain Alignment on How to Get There
   For a business strategy to be consistently and successfully executed, it must flow through your culture and your people. Once the key strategic drivers are agreed upon and clearly articulated — ideally on a one-page strategy communication map — you can design the path forward with your people. This involves defining the critical behaviors, mindsets, and business practices that align how work gets done — your workplace culture — with your strategic plan for success.
   
   Key questions to guide this process include:

   • • Have we accurately assessed our organizational culture to understand where we truly stand today
     • What cultural shifts are required to purposefully align our culture with our strategy?
     • Are our people leaders equipped and ready to lead strategic change with their teams?
     • What are the most significant barriers to successful strategy execution?
     • Are our leaders and key influencers prepared to model the behaviors we want to see?
     • Do our leaders have both the willingness and the capability to lead change?

   Answering these questions collaboratively ensures that your strategy does not remain a document on a wall — it becomes a living plan, embedded in the behaviors, decisions, and daily practices that drive results.

4. Stay the Course
   One final piece of advice: none of this happens overnight. Successful strategy execution demands ongoing rigor, careful monitoring, and patience. Behavior change takes time, but by tracking progress and celebrating meaningful small wins along the way, you sustain momentum and keep the effort moving steadily toward the desired outcomes.

The Bottom Line
If you want your strategy to succeed, you need uncompromising clarity and active engagement from key stakeholders to build the alignment and commitment that will drive results. Leave your strategy retreat with a concrete plan for follow-through — because even the clearest, most compelling vision of the future will fail without disciplined execution. 

To learn more about how to design a coherent business strategy, download 3 Big Mistakes to Avoid When Cascading Your Corporate Strategy