Why strategy stalls — and four ways that an outside perspective fixes them

Ask someone what strategy is and you’ll probably get several different answers. Visions. Plans. Priorities. Frameworks. They are partially right. Here’s how we put it: Strategy work is about helping an organisation make deliberate choices about where it will focus – and where not – so effort turns activity into outcomes.

Put another way, strategy is choosing which mountain to climb, why that mountain, and which route you’ll take, all before you start worrying about packing. It turns complexity into direction, makes trade-offs clear rather than accidental, and connects intent (‘what we want’) to reality (‘what’s actually possible’). Everything else downstream comes from choices.

You might be wondering, why do organisations bother hiring consultants for strategy if they know their business best? What we’ve found is organisations can do strategy internally, but that they struggle with doing it with purpose, objectivity, and speed.

Here are four main reasons to get an outside perspective when it comes to strategy:

1. Distance from organisational gravity: the value of emotional detachment

External consultants aren’t brought in because internal teams lack strategic ability. They’re hired because of their distance to the organisation. Internal teams are embedded in history, politics, unspoken rules, existing roles and incentives any of which can bring resistance to change.

With a level of detachment, an external perspective can say something like: ‘This assumption keeps showing up: does it still hold, or are we assuming this because it’s familiar?’

2. Forcing clarity and decisions

A strategy consultant helps speed up decision-making and focus on what’s truly important. We’ve seen strategy stall when too many priorities are set, diluting effort. Sometimes this is a result of avoiding explicit trade-offs. However, when everything is important, nothing is.

An outside advisor can help convert ‘we should probably…’ into ‘we will do this, not that, and here’s why.’

3. Pattern recognition

There’s also the value of pattern recognition. Consultants bring exposure to similar problems across industries, a sense of where strategies tend to fail during execution and a library of ‘this looked smart but didn’t work and why’ examples.

4. Legitimacy and momentum

The value of an outsider isn’t just insight; it’s legitimacy. Permission to change direction, to confront underperformance or to align senior stakeholders around a shared narrative. A consultant provides validation for decisions.

Approach to strategy work

When it comes to nailing strategy with clients, it starts with digging deeper into the real problem. From there, strategy follows.

The first thing I do with a client is elevate the issue, learning what the root cause is. Getting to the root cause means asking why, and then asking why again, and again, until you hit something structural.

We test whether the stated problem is the real one. Is this about direction, or is the existing strategy being used as a proxy for something harder like capability, governance, or leadership?

Once the real problem is visible, a good strategy needs to define what success looks like, which constraints are real and which are assumed. Good strategy also involves saying no. The consultant must step in to be clear which trade-offs can no longer be avoided: growth versus sustainability, custom solutions versus repeatability, short-term revenue versus long-term positioning. These tensions don’t disappear by being ignored; they just become implicit and expensive.

Finally, we try to anchor strategy in execution as early as possible. We ask, ‘If we choose this, what will people do differently on Monday morning?’ We want to see if strategy will change behaviour at the operational level. We also want to be realistic that strategy won’t address everything asking, ‘What would not change, even if this strategy succeeded?’

Strategy in action

To give a concrete example: an organisation might present its problem as a lack of asset availability to meet government-mandated requirements.

Why? Dig one level deeper and it’s a workforce shortage:15 key engineering occupations listed as national shortages, competition from mining and manufacturing, an ageing workforce.

Why? Dig further and it’s a budget reduction that limits the ability to recruit or remunerate competitively.

Why? Further still, and it’s a government directive to do more with the same less over the forward estimates.

The presenting problem and the root cause are very different and solving the surface level while ignoring the structural one is how strategies fail over time.

The strategic response involves three moves: finding efficiencies to offset funding reductions in the near and medium term, conducting a supply chain analysis to identify and relieve pressure on stressed procurement pipelines, and exploring automation and AI-assisted engineering solutions that reduce reliance on human labour. This improves asset availability without depending on a workforce that isn’t available.

Strategy is more than analysis

From the outside, strategy work looks analytical. From the inside, it’s almost emotional. People are attached to ideas. Past investments create sunk cost pressure. Saying no to a good option can feel like personal loss, not strategic discipline. The invisible work that doesn’t appear in any deliverable is managing personality and identity, creating psychological safety around trade-offs and helping leaders understand that focus is not retreat.

In the end, strategy is not always about being right, it’s about being deliberate. A perfect strategy that no one believes in or can execute is worse than clear, adequately informed, shared direction. The real test is, ‘Does this help people make better decisions when no one is in the room?’ Good leaders aren’t missed if their strategic direction is set and understood.