Dear Reader,
Your strategy document is useless if no one understands it
Five years ago, I was brought in to help an insurance company in Kenya whose senior team was frustrated. They had a 50-page strategy document, filled with vision statements, market analysis, and performance targets. But there was one problem, nobody in the company understood it. Sales teams didn’t know how it applied to their targets, operations struggled to connect it to their daily work, and even some executives couldn’t explain the priorities clearly. The strategy was a masterpiece on paper but a disaster in execution.
This is a common disease in many organizations. Leaders invest in beautifully written strategy documents, packed with industry jargon, complex frameworks, and abstract goals. They present them in boardrooms, then assume the organization will automatically translate them into action. The result? The document gathers dust, while employees continue doing what they were doing before. A strategy that people do not understand is as good as no strategy at all.
Simplicity is not stupidity
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is confusing complexity with intelligence. I grew up in Munteme village, where elders taught wisdom in simple proverbs. No one needed a dictionary to understand them, yet their impact lasted generations. The same principle applies to strategy, if your people can not repeat it, they can’t execute it.
At the insurance company, we tore apart the 50-page document and distilled it into three core priorities. Each team then translated those priorities into their specific roles. Sales knew what to focus on. Operations understood what to streamline. Even the customer service team knew how to align their work to the bigger picture. Strategy became practical, not theoretical.
Translate strategy into daily execution
The real test of a strategy is whether it changes how people work. If it only exists in boardrooms and PowerPoint slides, it is useless. Leaders must act as translators, ensuring that every department understands how their work contributes to the strategy.
At the insurance company, we implemented a simple rule that every meeting had to start with a five-minute check-in on strategic priorities. This forced leaders to reinforce key goals regularly. Employees stopped seeing strategy as an abstract document and started viewing it as a daily guide.
The leadership challenge, clarity over sophistication
Many executives struggle with a false belief that using big words makes them look smarter. In reality, true leadership is about making complex things simple. If your junior staff can’t explain your strategy in one sentence, you have failed as a leader.
To fix this,
a) strip your strategy down to its essentials,
b) communicate it in a way that even a new hire can understand, and
c) build mechanisms to reinforce it in daily work.
If your strategy is sitting in a document that only a few people understand, you are running a company on assumptions, not execution. Burn the jargon, simplify the message, and make strategy something people can act on, not just admire. Otherwise, your strategy document is nothing more than corporate fiction.
Simplify, communicate, execute
Take a hard look at your strategy document today. Can your frontline employees explain it in one or two sentences? If not, you have work to do. Gather your leadership team, distill your strategy to its essence, and ensure every department knows what success looks like in their role.
Strategy should not live in boardroom presentations, it should live in the daily decisions of your people. Simplify, communicate, and execute. Because if no one understands your strategy, it might as well not exist.
Stop chasing trends, focus on what actually moves the needle
A few years ago, during a strategy review session with the executive team of a financial institution, I sat through a presentation where a young, excited manager of a large firm was making a case for launching a blockchain-powered savings product. The leadership had called me to sit in as a technical adviser to the Board on emmerging technologies strategy. He had slides filled with buzzwords AI, machine learning, cryptocurrency integration, one point of truth is things that made the board members nod in admiration. When he finished, I asked one simple question: “How will this help you grow CASA (current assets, savings assets) deposits from your existing customer base by at least 25% in the next 12 months?” The room went silent. The young man flipped through his slides, searching for an answer that wasn’t there.
This is the problem with many leaders today.
They get seduced by trends, industry buzzwords, and what competitors are doing, instead of focusing on what truly moves the needle. Business transformation is not about appearing innovative, it is about solving real problems and driving results.
The illusion of progress
In Munteme village, where I grew up, farmers never wasted time planting fancy imported crops just because they were trending elsewhere. On the contrary, genetically modified crops like pawpaws failed miserably in our village. Even when it comes to chicken, locals prefer the “local chicken” to the “off layer or genetically modified ones” which lack taste.
They focused on what worked for the soil, what could withstand the climate, and what could consistently bring in a harvest. In business, the same principle applies. You don’t chase trends; you focus on what works, refine it, and maximize its impact.
A retail company I worked with in Zambia once spent millions redesigning its mobile app, integrating artificial intelligence for “personalized shopping recommendations.” When we did a deep dive into their business, the real problem wasn’t their app. It was that their store managers were failing to track inventory properly, leading to frequent stockouts of high-demand items. Instead of solving that basic but critical issue, they were pouring money into digital gimmicks.
The same happens in many industries. Companies rush to implement chatbots while ignoring poor customer service at physical branches. They invest in data analytics platforms while their teams lack basic financial discipline. They sponsor hackathons while struggling to fulfill core business functions like timely payments to suppliers. First fix the core, success will follow.
What moves the needle
Every business leader must ask, What grows revenue, improves margins, and strengthens our market position? The answer is often simpler than the distractions we chase.
a) Strengthening the fundamentals Before looking at the latest trends, fix the basics. Are you tracking your financials in real-time? Is your team properly trained? Are your core systems efficient? Most businesses don’t need AI; they need discipline in execution.
b) Customer experience over technology. A technology upgrade is meaningless if it doesn’t improve the customer experience. A transport company I advised in Kenya wanted to invest in a fleet tracking system. After studying their operations, we found that their biggest issue was poor driver discipline, speeding, taking unauthorized routes, and overloading.
A basic but firm enforcement of operating procedures led to greater efficiency than any technology would have. We set times a driver should arrive at specific locations based on the speed average, sleep time, and vehicle speed. This forced drivers to sleep and rest more, reduce stress, which reduced accidents and therefore abnormal losses.
c) Leveraging data, not trends Leaders must be obsessed with data, not just industry buzz. A manufacturing company in Rwanda wanted to diversify into e-commerce because their competitors were doing it. But when we analyzed their data, 80% of their revenue came from institutional clients, not individual consumers. Instead of chasing a new channel, we helped them deepen their B2B relationships, increasing their revenue by 35% within a year.
The leadership challenge prioritizes over distractions
The real test for executives is not how well they keep up with trends but how well they separate what is essential from what is noise. The pressure to appear innovative often leads leaders into wasting resources. The best leaders ask: “What problem are we solving? How does this investment directly improve our core metrics?”
A structured approach to overcoming this leadership challenge involves:
- Diagnosing the business like a doctor: Just like a good doctor in Munteme village would never prescribe medicine without understanding the sickness, a leader should never approve investments without fully diagnosing the real issues affecting performance. Start with a deep dive into operations, customer feedback, financial reports, and employee productivity metrics.
- Brutal prioritization: Identify the top three things that, if fixed, will generate the highest impact. These become your focus. Anything outside these priorities should be questioned and, if necessary, shelved.
- Execution, not excitement: Innovation is meaningless without execution. Leaders must hold teams accountable for implementing real solutions rather than just presenting ambitious PowerPoint slides about the future.
Stop chasing trends.
Business success is not about looking advanced, it’s about making strategic moves that improve performance. The best companies I have worked with are not necessarily the flashiest but they are the ones disciplined enough to do what truly matters.
