Peter Drucker said: “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”  This and a slew of similar maxims reflect a common view of strategy execution: that it’s distinct from strategy, harder to pull off than defining a strategy, and therefore more critical to success — underpinned by seemingly indisputable virtues such as diligence, discipline, consistency, alignment, and focus. But such a simplistic view of execution can be misleading and can reduce actual impact.

Your Strategy Has to Be Flexible — But So Does Your Execution