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STRATEGY PRACTICE
Connect Your Strategy with Execution
Turning your vision, ideas, and instincts into focused plans your team can get excited about and actually execute.
Most leadership teams don’t fail at creating or setting strategy—they fail from misalignment, unclear priorities, and connectivity between the strategy and execution. Few companies struggle to come up with great ideas. More often, there are more great ideas than there are people to work on or cash to deploy them. An effective strategic planning function is the cure for these challenges.
Let's talk about your strategy-to-execution challenges.
Strategy to Execution Disconnects
Most leadership teams spend significant time on strategy, yet struggle to translate it into sustained execution. The issue isn’t intelligence or effort — it’s the absence of a repeatable system that connects decisions, priorities, and daily work.
Some facts that might resonate with you:
- Fewer than 30% of companies run a formal strategic planning process.
- Less than 30% of employees understand the strategy well enough to act on it.
- Over 70% of strategic plans fail to execute.
Common symptoms we see:
- Everything feels like a priority
- Strategic initiatives stall after kickoff
- Leaders interpret strategy differently
- Meetings consume time but don’t move work
- Execution depends on heroics, not systems
If this resonates, you likely don't have a strategy problem, you have a strategy execution problem.
Why This Happens
- Management teams often lack the experience or familiarity with running formal strategic planning systems, and just apply "common sense", leading to disappointing results.
- Strategies exist, but not where the work actually happens on the front line.
- Everything is a priority. There isn't enough time or money to pursue all priorities simultaneously.
- Accountability is unclear. Decision rights are blurry.
- No operating system connecting plans to execution
The S5 Navigator™ System
Strategy Execution with Navigator™
S5 Navigator™ is Stage 5’s proprietary strategy-to-execution system that aligns leadership, sets priorities, and installs the operating rhythms required to execute. The system operates in 5 stages:
- Discovery: Data-driven deep-dive into the current state, both internally and externally, all stakeholders included.
- Clarity: Align leadership around the current reality, value drivers, and execution constraints.
- Priorities: Convert strategy into a prioritized, enterprise-wide set of initiatives aligned to resources, constraints, and maximum value creation.
- Execution: Make work visible, owned, and accountable. Initiatives are managed transparently within the weekly and monthly operating rhythm of the business.
- Adaptation: Adjust deliberately as conditions change. Reassess priorities, resources, and timing when reality intervenes—without chaos or constant replanning.
Strategy fails when it’s treated as an event.
Navigator runs it as a system.
Navigator™ Advantages
What You Get with S5 Navigator™
S5 Navigator™ is a complete, end-to-end strategy-to-execution system built for real-world operating environments. It connects long-range direction, near-term priorities, and day-to-day execution into a single, cohesive system leaders can actually run.
Navigator replaces static annual plans with a living, cross-functional operating discipline. Strategy is reviewed, adjusted, and executed continuously—so priorities stay relevant, constraints surface early, and momentum is sustained throughout the year.
What That Means in Practice
- An Integrated Planning System: A single system that connects 5-year vision, 3-year priorities, 12-month operating plans, quarterly initiatives, and monthly execution rhythms.
- Enterprise-Wide Alignment: Strategy and execution aligned across Sales, Operations, Marketing, Finance, Talent, and other core functions—so the organization moves together.
- Clear Line of Sight from Vision to Action: Objectives cascade into initiatives with defined ownership, timelines, measures, and accountability.
- A 12-Month Rolling Execution Cadence: Monthly deliverables, reviews, and adjustments that keep strategy current and execution disciplined.
- Flexibility Without Disruption: Designed to work alongside EOS, S5 DRIVE™, DBS, ACE, or other operating systems—or replace what isn’t working.
Navigator is dynamic, cross-functional, and built for leaders who want a strategy system they can actually run.
Navigator Tools
Long-Range Strategy & Alignment
- 5 & 3-Year Strategic Priorities
- Vision, Mission, Values, & North Star Metrics
- Market & Competitive Positioning Analysis
Annual & Quarterly Planning Systems
- 12-Month Operating Plan
- Quarterly Initiative Prioritization
- Resource & Constraint Plan
Monthly Execution Cadence
- Rolling 12-Month Strategic Execution Calendar
- Monthly Leadership Reviews
- KPI Scorecards & Visibility Systems
Cross-Functional Integration
- Companywide Initiative Mapping (Ops, Sales, Finance, Talent)
- Clear Ownership, Accountability & Decision Rights
- Interdependency & Handoff Alignment
Performance & Measurement Tools
- KPI Architecture & Dashboard
- Leading/Lagging Indicator Mapping
- Forecasting & Variance Review Rhythms
Strategic Planning Tools
- SWOT & Risk Assessment
- Go-to-Market & Pricing Strategy
- New Product/Service Development Roadmaps