Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results

Yes, There Is an Execution Gap—But That’s Only the Tip of the Iceberg!

We expected some percentage of leaders to report a gap between their organization’s ability to formulate and communicate a vision and strategy and its ability to deliver results. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the number was fairly substantial. And our suspicions were confirmed: nearly half of the 409 leaders we surveyed (49 percent) believed there was a strategy-execution gap in their organizations.

Here’s what really surprised us: only 36 percent of leaders responded positively to the question, “I have confidence in my organization’s ability to close the gap between strategy and execution.” Said another way, a staggering 64 percent of leaders who indicated there ...