Strategic Visibility Isn't Optional

I once asked a CEO how much of his company’s time he thought was spent on strategic work. His answer? “About 30%.”

The reality? Just 6%.

And that 6% came from a small pool of managers and directors, none of whom had a portfolio, program, or project structure to anchor their work.

This isn’t rare. Most organizations severely underestimate how little time, energy, and resources are truly devoted to strategy. They say they want to grow, but their calendar says otherwise.

Here’s how we revealed the truth—and how we fixed it:

I interviewed each team member identified as “strategic.” I gathered data on how much time they spent weekly on projects tied to strategic goals.

Result: Strategy wasn’t driving the company; tactical firefighting was.

The organization’s biggest strategic initiatives had no measurable metrics, no business cases, and no roadmap.

Result: Everything was urgent. But nothing was prioritized.

We Took Action:
• Governance Frameworks were established to track, review, and resource projects appropriately.

• Visibility Mechanisms were put in place so executives could see progress across portfolios
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• Resource Planning was realigned to shift staff from reactive tasks toward planned strategic execution.

The final insight? Strategy cannot live in leadership’s mind alone. It must be communicated, structured, tracked, and resourced.