The plan for the year was agreed at the January away day: grow commercial maintenance, add a heat pump team and lift gross margin. By the summer the order book is full, but most of the new work looks like the old work, the heat pump team is still being discussed and nobody can say what happened to margin. Business strategy execution is the work of turning a chosen strategy into priorities, decisions and weekly routines that people across the business carry out.
This guide explains why strategy execution can stall and sets out seven ways to improve it in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), electrical contracting or renewables business turning over £1M–£50M.
What is business strategy execution?
Business strategy execution is the part of strategy that happens after the plan is written: choosing what to do first, giving each priority an owner, making the decisions it needs and checking progress in the business’s regular meetings. A strategy says where the business is going; execution is how the business gets there week by week.
Strategy execution is related to, but not the same as, operational execution. Operational execution is doing today’s work well: quoting on time, scheduling engineers, ordering materials and invoicing promptly. Strategy execution changes what that work looks like over time, such as moving the mix from new-build to maintenance contracts or adding a new technology. A busy, well-run order book does not on its own show that the strategy is moving.
Why does strategy execution fail?
Strategy execution can fail when the strategy is not turned into a short list of priorities with owners, when decisions still queue for one person and when the regular meetings track jobs but not the strategy. Claims that most strategies fail are widely repeated, but the evidence behind the headline figures is weak.
A review by Carlos Cândido and Sérgio Santos in the Journal of Management & Organization (2015, volume 21, issue 2) notes that “It is often claimed that 50–90% of strategic initiatives fail”, finds that most estimates rest on evidence that is “outdated, fragmentary, fragile or just absent”, and concludes that “the true rate of implementation failure remains to be determined”. The similar claim that 70% of change programmes fail is covered in business transformation and the evidence on the 70% failure figure. The more useful question for an owner is why a particular strategy is stalling.
Five causes can stall strategy execution in a growing contracting business: too many priorities, no named owners, decisions that stay at the top, a management rhythm that only looks at live jobs, and a team that has not been told what the strategy means for their work.
- Too many priorities. Too many opportunities become priorities, so none gets the time it needs.
- No named owners. Priorities belong to “the management team” rather than to one person with a date.
- Decisions stay at the top. Pricing, hiring and purchasing questions still wait for the owner.
- Meetings only look at live jobs. Weekly meetings cover this week’s problems, and the strategy is reviewed once a year.
- The team has not been told. Engineers, supervisors and office staff hear about the strategy second-hand, if at all.
How can a business improve strategy execution?
A business can improve strategy execution by changing how it chooses and owns priorities, makes decisions, reviews progress, explains the strategy, supports its managers and protects time.
Seven ways can improve strategy execution in a growing contracting business: fewer priorities, objectives with owners, clear decision rights, a management rhythm, two-way communication, capable and supported managers, and protected time.
- Fewer priorities. Three to five that the whole leadership team can name.
- Objectives with owners. Each priority written as an objective with a measure, a date and one owner.
- Clear decision rights. Written limits so managers can act without waiting for the owner.
- A management rhythm. Weekly and monthly reviews that look at the strategy as well as live work.
- Two-way communication. Explaining the strategy and listening to the people who will carry it out.
- Capable and supported managers. Line managers with the time, skills and wellbeing to lead the change.
- Protected time. Capacity set aside for strategic work so live jobs do not absorb all of it.
How does choosing fewer priorities help strategy execution?
Choosing fewer priorities helps strategy execution because priorities that managers cannot remember or agree on are hard to act on. When a strategy carries ten aims, managers each pick the ones that suit their part of the business, and effort can spread too thinly for any of them to move.
Research by Donald Sull and Rebecca Homkes, first published in Harvard Business Review in 2015 and reported by London Business School (December 2015), surveyed 11,000 senior executives, leaders and managers from more than 400 companies. It found that “Even with five tries, on average, only around 50% can list the same one priority” and that “Only a third can list their firm’s top three” priorities. For those involved in developing the strategy, the source states: “The result is only slightly more than half”. The survey was not of small contracting businesses, but a priority that managers cannot name is unlikely to shape their week in a business of any size.
A simple test is to ask each manager, separately, to write down the business’s top three priorities for the year. If the answers differ, the strategy may not yet be clear enough to execute.
How do objectives and owners turn strategy into work?
Objectives and owners turn strategy into work by giving each priority a measurable result, a deadline and one named person accountable for it. A priority such as “grow maintenance” becomes an objective such as a target number of signed maintenance contracts by a set date, owned by the commercial manager.
How objectives and targets can be written well is covered in goal setting frameworks such as SMART goals and OKRs. For strategy execution, the main point is the link: each objective can be traced back to one of the few priorities, and each owner knows which one they are carrying.
Accountability can work better when it is about the result rather than blame. An owner who reports early that an objective is slipping gives the business time to change the plan.
Why do decision rights matter for strategy execution?
Decision rights matter for strategy execution because a strategy creates new decisions, about pricing, hiring, purchasing and which work to take on, and if all of them go to the owner the strategy moves at the pace of one person’s diary. Written decision limits let managers act within agreed bounds.
In an owner-managed contracting business, the first decisions worth writing down are those the strategy depends on: the discount a manager can give on a maintenance contract, the value of materials a supervisor can order, and who can approve a new hire for the heat pump team. Limits can start low and rise as confidence grows.
Where a strategy needs a new structure as well as new decision rights, the design work is closer to a target operating model; why those programmes stall and how to restart them is covered in why a target operating model fails and how to fix it.
How does a management rhythm keep strategy on track?
A management rhythm keeps strategy on track by putting the strategy’s objectives on the agenda of the meetings the business already holds. A weekly operations meeting can spend ten minutes on the priority objectives; a monthly review can look at the measures behind them and decide what to change.
UK survey evidence that firms score lowest on their use of key performance indicators, and how targets, measures and reviews fit together as a cycle, are set out in business performance management and the management cycle.
Alongside the weekly and monthly meetings, a quarterly review can decide whether the priorities themselves still stand.
A check Rostone Operating Partners uses is to read the last six weeks of operations meeting notes and mark each item as either live work or strategy. Where almost every item is live work, the strategy has no regular place in the management rhythm, whatever the plan says.
How should a strategy be communicated to the team?
A strategy can be communicated to the team by explaining what is changing, why, and what it means for each person’s work, and by asking for their views before the details are fixed. The people who carry out the work can see where the current way of working breaks down.
Acas guidance on informing and consulting at work draws a useful distinction: “‘inform’ means the employer is communicating with staff to make sure they’re updated about workplace matters”, while “‘consult’ means the employer actively seeks and considers employees’ views before making a decision”.
Three habits can help a strategy land with the team: starting with the destination, translating it for each role and reporting progress honestly.
- Start with the destination. Say in one or two sentences where the business is heading before adding detail.
- Translate it for each role. What the maintenance push means for an engineer’s week is different from what it means for the accounts team.
- Report progress honestly. Share what is working and what is not, so the strategy stays visible after the launch.
How do managers and wellbeing affect strategy execution?
Managers and wellbeing affect strategy execution because line managers are the people who turn priorities into daily instructions, and staff who are stretched or unhappy can have less capacity for change. A strategy that adds new work without supporting the managers who carry it can stall in the middle of the business.
Research by Clement Bellet, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and George Ward in the contact centres of BT, reported by the University of Oxford (October 2019), found over a six-month study that “workers are 13% more productive when happy”. Happier workers made more calls per hour and converted more calls to sales, and the researchers found that “happy workers do not work more hours than their discontented colleagues”. The setting was sales calls, not field work, so the figure does not transfer directly to an installation business.
The CIPD Good Work Index 2026, based on 5,074 UK employees surveyed between December 2025 and February 2026, states that “Investing in the capability of line managers should be a priority” and that “Providing managers with the time and training to manage staff well can make a considerable difference”. The people practices that support this, from selection to training and involvement, are covered in high performance work systems.
In Rostone’s work with HVAC, electrical and renewables businesses, strategy execution can slow at the supervisor and contracts manager level, where people move up because they are strong engineers and are then asked to lead change with no time set aside for it. A clear brief, a few objectives and a regular one-to-one can help those managers carry it.
How does protecting time help strategy execution?
Protecting time helps strategy execution because live jobs can fill the week. Unless time for strategic work is set aside in advance, such as a fixed half-day each week for the owner of each priority, urgent work on today’s jobs can absorb it.
Four ways can protect time for strategy execution: scheduling strategic work, limiting work in progress, delegating routine decisions and reviewing capacity.
- Schedule strategic work. Book time for each priority objective in the diary, as for a site visit.
- Limit work in progress. Finish one improvement before starting the next, so effort is not spread across half-done projects.
- Delegate routine decisions. Use the written decision limits so managers are not pulled back into daily approvals.
- Review capacity. Check monthly whether the order book leaves room for the strategy, and adjust the timetable rather than letting it slip unseen.
Limiting work in progress and delegating also appear among the ten leadership strategies to improve productivity, which cover the team’s working week.
How does strategy execution change as a business grows or prepares to sell?
Strategy execution changes as a business grows or prepares to sell because the strategy itself changes, and with it the priorities, measures and decisions that need to move. The basic disciplines stay the same: a few priorities, owners, decision rights, a management rhythm and honest reporting.
Rostone frames this through the four GRAX options: Grow, Raise, Acquire and Exit. In growth, execution centres on moving decisions away from the owner so the business can take on more without everything queuing at the top. In raising finance, it is about showing a lender that the strategy’s measures are reviewed each month and acted on. In an acquisition, it is about bringing two sets of priorities and meetings onto one plan. In an exit, it is about showing a buyer that the strategy is being delivered by a team, not by the owner alone.
What are the warning signs that strategy execution is slipping?
The warning signs that strategy execution is slipping can show in meetings and diaries before they show in the accounts: managers name different priorities, objectives have no owner or date, decisions still wait for the owner, and strategy items drop off the weekly agenda when the order book is busy.
Five warning signs can show in a growing contracting business: different answers, ownerless objectives, decision queues, missing agenda items and stalled projects.
- Different answers. Managers asked separately give different top priorities.
- Ownerless objectives. Objectives belong to a team or have no date.
- Decision queues. Quotes, purchases and hires still wait for the owner.
- Missing agenda items. Strategy items are the first to be dropped from meetings.
- Stalled projects. New initiatives start before earlier ones are finished.
The business improvement service for HVAC, renewables and electrical contractors works inside the business each month to find where margin, cash and capacity are being lost, and writes the changes into the management system, weekly routine, roles and procedures.
Frequently asked questions
A strategy sets out where a business is going and how it intends to compete. Strategy execution is the work of turning that strategy into priorities, owners, decisions and regular reviews, so that the day-to-day running of the business moves in the chosen direction.
Operational execution is how reliably a business delivers its current work: quotes sent on time, engineers scheduled, materials ordered and invoices raised promptly. It keeps today’s order book running. Strategy execution is different: it changes the mix of that work over time, so a business can run its operations well while its strategy stands still.
The strategy execution gap is the difference between what a strategy sets out to achieve and what the business actually delivers. It can come from too many priorities, unclear ownership, decisions that stay with one person or meetings that never review the strategy.
There is no fixed rule. A business can check progress on priority objectives weekly or monthly and review the priorities themselves each quarter, with a fuller review each year. The right rhythm depends on how fast the market and the business are changing.
Goal setting frameworks such as OKRs, the balanced scorecard and simple one-page plans can all help turn a strategy into objectives and measures. Whichever framework is used, the habits around it carry the work: few priorities, named owners and regular reviews.
Sources
Journal of Management & Organization (Cambridge University Press): Strategy implementation: What is the failure rate? (Cândido and Santos, 2015)
London Business School: Two-thirds of senior managers can’t name their firm’s top priorities (2015)
Acas: Informing and consulting at work
University of Oxford: Happy workers are 13% more productive (2019)
CIPD: Good Work Index 2026: survey report
Last updated: 14 November 2026
