It's no secret that many strategies fall far short of their goals. It’s the reason why market leaders turn into market laggards much faster today. Just look at once world-beating companies like General Motors, Netscape, and Digital Equipment Corp. All were once leaders in their market sectors. All today have either been toppled from their perch (or, in GM's case, are about to be), are struggling or are out of business.

It's been said so often that it's become a cliché: Organizations need to make far-reaching changes - and more of them -- faster than ever. But the cliché is real. In a world of truly global competition, companies do need new strategies and other improvement initiatives more than ever. And because the pace at which competitors improve themselves is accelerating, executives need employees up and down the organization to adopt new strategies in far less time and with much higher levels of ownership and commitment. Three to five years won't cut it anymore. Increasingly, new strategies must be executed in months, not years.

This poses big challenges for CEOs and other organizational leaders. A number of signs suggest many are struggling:

• Some 90% of all corporate strategies aren't executed well, according to research by balanced scorecard pioneers Robert Kaplan and David Norton.
• Corporate change programs under-deliver. A Harvard Business School study by Prof. Nitin Nohria found that less than one-third of the major change programs at Fortune 100 companies had financial returns greater than the cost of capital - despite an average $1 billion investment.
• CEO turnover increased 70% between 1995 and 2005, from 9% annually to 15.3%, according to a Booz Allen Hamilton study of the world's 2,500 largest publicly traded corporations. One-third of the 2005 CEO turnovers were performance-related. In North America, 35% of CEOs who departed left involuntarily.

Why do so many new strategies, change programs and other vital improvement initiatives fall short of their goals? Companies spend $100 billion annually on strategy consultants to come up with sound plans. It can't always be for a lack of good strategies.

The companies you can learn about on our website will tell you the key to their ability to successfully execute their strategies is entirely different. It's one of gaining the unstoppable commitment of employees at all levels to the strategy.