“Companies Exist to Create Value”
Sometimes the simplest truths are the ones most often overlooked.
Every company exists to create value. It is the singular reason for being and the only measure by which it endures. Everything that is done within a company either creates or destroys value. Naturally our objective in business is therefore to sustainably and competitively maximise value creation.
We live in a dynamic and competitive world. The speed at which we must decide and then act is increasing rapidly. It was perhaps not too long ago that companies focused on 20+ year strategies. Those that have are probably either dead or already or in the final pangs of their death throes.
Yet good decision making still matters. It is perhaps one of the few ‘most-important- things’ that a leader must do. We are judged by the results that emanate from our decisions and associated actions.
Good decisions repeatedly made, that are well executed, generate results that create momentum that over time yield exceptional outcomes. The opposite holds true as well.
The leader in the first instance is hailed as a visionary; in the opposite instance, they may perhaps get a job at a business school lecturing on strategy within the African context!
There is however a real challenge in sustaining value creation competitively and sustainably over time. It means we must navigate an increasingly complex world, be decisive in our actions with clarity of purpose and determination in execution.
Value has historically been defined narrowly in terms of profit, and in relation to the return on capital employed in a business. Success was measured by whether a company could create returns on investment at a rate greater than that of the cost of the capital. In recent decades, that definition has broadened. Notwithstanding the foundational need to be profitable, companies are now expected to deliver value not only for shareholders but also for employees, customers, communities and the broader environment in which they operate.
This shift has forced leaders to re-examine how value is created and sustained in a VUCA / TUNA / (any other 4 letter acronym of your choosing) world.
The truth is that value creation can only occur in a dynamic and moving system, an ecosystem. Ecosystems (e.g. markets) are created through interaction and exchanges of information, where the most effective and efficient ecosystems are the ones with the greatest information availability and transparency.
The understanding that value is ecosystem-driven and information-dependent sits at the heart of StratXe.
The Strategy Execution Gap
When StratXe was founded almost eight years ago our initial focus was clear. We wanted to help organisations close the strategy execution gap.
Every leader is familiar with this problem. An organisation invests significant time, effort and resources in developing strategy. The plans are compelling. The goals are clear. Yet somewhere between formulation and execution, intent becomes diluted. Initiatives stall, projects lose focus, performance lags and the organisation fails to deliver against its potential.
The strategy execution gap is one of the most persistent challenges in management. It shows up in many ways. Strategies live in slide decks but fail to shape daily work. Teams appear aligned in theory but operate in silos. Leaders lack timely information and make decisions in the dark. Projects absorb resources but fail to deliver measurable outcomes.
The cost of this gap is enormous. Studies suggest that more than 70 percent of strategies fail, not because they were poorly conceived, but because they were poorly executed. For organisations, this translates into missed opportunities, wasted capital and in some cases, existential risk.
StratXe was born out of a determination to address this challenge.
Our Journey with StratXe
Over the years our work on the strategy execution gap took us far beyond strategy itself. We began examining every part of the company that influenced execution.
We looked at organisational and management issues across corporate, divisional and individual alignment, performance management, portfolio and project management, capital allocation, stakeholder engagement, sales, marketing and operations.
At all points, we sought to achieve the following:
- An understanding and definition of the problems faced,
- Development of standardised solutions that addressed the foundational issues, giving structure to often-time chaotic processes,
- Systemising the solution in a way that can be customised and replicated at scale,
- Developing software, in an integrated and cohesive manner that allowed for the digitisation of such processes,
- Deploying, iterating and enhancing the solution over time.
This approach revealed something extraordinary. By applying ourselves consistently to a single problem, we discovered that the challenges of execution were not isolated. They were symptoms of a deeper challenge: the flow of information.
What We Learned About Value Creation
Looking back, the lessons of our journey can be summarised in three insights:
- All organisations exist to create value.
- All value creation occurs within ecosystems.
- All ecosystems depend on the exchange of information.
When the right information is available to the right people at the right time, vision becomes sharper, decisions become more effective and execution becomes more consistent. Conversely, when bottlenecks or asymmetries in information emerge, organisations stumble.
In many respects, solving the information problem is solving the strategy execution problem.
StratXe as a Leadership Tool
What began as a simple cascading tool grew into a leadership and decision-making tool. StratXe evolved into a system that enables leaders, managers and teams to envision with foresight, make better decisions, align resources and people, influence and mobilise teams, and set and uphold organisational standards.
At its core, leadership is about having the insight and foresight to envision a possible future that is aspirational. It requires clarity of purpose to make the really difficult decisions necessary to realise the vision. It requires influencing, motivating, inspiration, commanding and cajoling people to buy into and execute the vision during periods of ease and periods of difficulty. And most of all, it requires you to set standards and be uncompromising on them. And you need all of them to turn vision into exceptional results.
StratXe supports that journey at every point.
The Missing Ingredient
For many years achieving coherence across these processes demanded significant manual effort. Teams of consultants and managers worked tirelessly to collect, interpret and integrate information. Progress was slow and bottlenecks were frequent.
The arrival of new technologies, particularly AI, changed the equation. AI enhanced human capacity in ways that accelerated the process. It reduced friction in data gathering and interpretation, systemised knowledge in new ways and opened the possibility of real-time insight and reporting.
By integrating these advances into its core, StratXe became an end-to-end system for decision-making, alignment, performance tracking, monitoring and reporting.
The result is a platform that enhances information flow and reduces asymmetry, equipping leaders and organisations to execute with speed and precision.
The Future of Value Creation with StratXe
Today StratXe is more than a platform. It is a philosophy, a framework and a tool. It reflects the belief that all human effort is oriented toward value creation, that value emerges in ecosystems, and that ecosystems thrive on information.
It is also a practical system, one that translates vision into results, strategy into execution and effort into value.
StratXe took time to walk. Now it is running. And we invite you to run with us as we maximise sustainable value creation together.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Discover how StratXe can help your organisation enhance information flow, close the strategy execution gap and unlock sustainable value creation.