The Strategy-Execution Gap

Every year, boards approve ambitious IT strategies. Digital transformation. Cloud migration. AI integration. The presentations are polished, the business cases compelling, the budgets approved.

Then nothing happens.

Or rather, something happens — but it is not what was intended. Projects start and stop. Priorities shift. Teams work hard but move in different directions. And twelve months later, that brilliant strategy lives only in a forgotten PowerPoint deck.

This is the Strategy-Execution Gap — the silent killer of IT initiatives. And after 30 years in the field, leading turnarounds and building PMOs from scratch, I have seen the same pattern repeat across organizations of all sizes.

Why 90% Fail

I have identified five core reasons why IT strategies fail to deliver:

1. No operationalization plan — Strategy without a "how" is just a wish list. The board approves the vision, but nobody knows what to do Monday morning.
2. The middle management gap — They get the title but not the toolkit. Promoted to lead transformation, they have never actually done it before.
3. Framework confusion — SAFe, Scrum, PRINCE2, ITIL, DevOps... Paralysis by analysis. Teams spend more time debating methodology than delivering.
4. Governance as control, not enablement — Compliance processes that kill speed. Governance designed to prevent mistakes rather than enable success.
5. Missing The Translator — No one who speaks both languages fluently: boardroom strategy and developer reality. The gap widens because no one bridges it.

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The Fix: Start with "How"

At Melsen Consulting, we do not start with frameworks. We start with questions:

• How will this strategy translate to weekly priorities?
• How do we maintain governance without killing speed?
• How do we build the bridge between vision and execution?
• How do we know if we are on track — really on track?

The answer is not another certification or methodology. It is building operational excellence that fits your context — pragmatic, framework-agnostic, and relentlessly focused on results.

I call this approach The How — because "how" is the question that matters most.

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From Strategy to Reality

The gap between strategy and execution is not a technology problem. It is not a process problem. It is a translation problem.

And like any translation, it requires someone who speaks both languages fluently — someone who understands the boardroom concerns about risk and ROI, and the developer realities of technical debt and delivery cycles.

Someone who can take "digital transformation" and turn it into "here is what we do next week."

That is The How - 360.

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That is what filosophy I carried with me when I formed  Melsen Consulting and this blog. A pragmatic approach that bridges people, processes, methodologies and technology.

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Next week: "The Governance That Enables (Instead of Killing) Innovation" — how to maintain control without losing speed.