Both-And not Either-Or When It Comes to Strategy and Execution

In the 100+ year history of American baseball, one of the most enduring and unresolvable (from any sort of objective standpoint) issues is whether good pitching beats good hitting or whether it is the other way around. Similarly, one of the most enduring issues is whether strategy or execution is more important to business success. Heavy-hitting writers have entered the fray on both sides. INSEAD, the elite French business school, has the latest say by identifying implementation glitches as a leading cause of failed strategy.Our read of the aggregate data in this field is that it takes both good strategy and great implementation to succeed. Neither really trumps the other and one is useless by itself.