Every beginning of the year brings the same ritual for most companies: review of goals, adjustments to strategic planning, new priorities and renewed speeches about growth, efficiency or innovation. The problem is that, in practice, many organizations start different cycles repeating the same obstacles.
Not because of a lack of ambition or strategic intelligence, but because they ignore a central factor in execution: organizational culture.
McKinsey studies show that up to 70% of strategies fail not because of their design, but because of the difficulty of execution. This data helps dismantle a common belief among executives: that good plans, in themselves, are enough to generate consistent results.
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When strategy and culture go in opposite directions
It is common to find companies that communicate a clear strategy, but operate with a culture that points in the opposite direction. Some examples are recurring:
Organizations that claim to seek accelerated growth, but punish mistakes severely. Companies that claim to encourage innovation, but require absolute consensus before any decision. Businesses that talk about high performance, but tolerate inconsistent deliveries over long periods.
This misalignment creates a silent, cumulative effect. Professionals stop acting in accordance with the declared strategy and start behaving in accordance with what the system actually rewards or tolerates. Over time, the strategy loses traction, not because of a lack of understanding, but because of a lack of coherence.
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The Harvard Business Review points out that companies with a culture aligned with strategy have up to three times more likely to outperform your competitors in financial performance. The difference is not in having better people, but in creating a culture that favors decisions consistent with the business objectives.
The recurring mistake of senior leadership
When the strategy does not advance, the most common reaction from leadership is to intensify demands. More goals, more meetings, more pressure on teams. Although understandable, this response often generates little sustainable results.
Pressure without cultural alignment tends to increase burnout, not performance. What defines organizational behavior are not speeches or institutional presentations, but practical decisions such as:
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- What is tolerated?
- Who gets promoted?
- Who remains despite delivering little?
- What behaviors are recognized?
- Which deviations are ignored in the name of short-term results?
These signals build, day after day, the company’s true incentive system.
When leaders promote certain behaviors, tolerate deviations or avoid difficult decisions, they are, consciously or unconsciously, designing organizational culture. There is no neutrality in this process.
Culture as an execution system
Treating culture as a peripheral topic, delegable to HR or exclusively symbolic is a strategic error. In practice, culture functions as an organization’s operating system. It defines the speed of decisions, the level of autonomy, the quality of conversations and the way conflicts are handled.
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Companies that manage to execute their strategy well tend to be clear about which behaviors support their objectives. This clarity translates into management rituals, objective evaluation criteria, coherent incentives and a leadership agenda connected to strategic priorities.
When these elements are absent, execution relies excessively on individual effort and heroism; a model that is difficult to sustain in the long term.
A practical exercise for senior leadership
Some questions help identify whether culture and strategy are truly connected:
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- Are the behaviors demanded the same ones that are recognized and rewarded?
- Do strategic priorities appear clearly on the leadership agenda?
- Do managers know what is expected of them beyond numerical indicators?
- Do difficult decisions reinforce or weaken the desired culture?
- Is there clarity or ambiguity in the way performance and behavior are assessed?
Ambiguity in these responses usually indicates a relevant risk to the execution of the strategy.
Strong culture as a condition for the next cycle
At the beginning of a new year, refining your strategy is necessary. But it’s not enough. Without an equally deep reflection on the culture that supports or hinders this plan, the company runs the risk of repeating old patterns with new objectives.
Culture is neither an accessory nor an operational theme. It is a direct responsibility of the CEO, the board and senior leadershipbecause it is born from the decisions that this group makes and the concessions it chooses to make.
When starting another cycle, it’s worth asking: in addition to adjusting the strategy, is your company prepared to ensure that the culture delivers what was planned? Because, in the end, the strategy defines where you want to go. Culture defines whether the company will, in fact, get there.
