Why Many Strategy Tools Fail Executives

This is the start of a series leading up to the release of MOVE™

My aim: to reframe strategy by replacing the familiar and famous tools of another era with ones that actually work for leaders today.

Because many of the tools still taught in MBAs — and still used in boardrooms — were designed for a slower world. They gave structure in their time, but today they leave executives stuck.

They describe.
They don't decide.

Executives everywhere know the names:

  • SWOT → lists strengths, no decisions
  • 5 Forces → describes industry, no choices
  • Balanced Scorecard → tracks metrics, no priorities
  • Value Chain → maps activities, not decisions
  • Scenario Planning → multiplies futures, no action

I learned these tools in my MBA.
And at the time, they were cutting-edge — they gave structure and insight where little existed.

But working with executives across industries made one thing clear:

They often ended up as a single page in a deck — familiar, but rarely decisive.

The world has moved on.
Industries, competition, technology — everything runs faster.
Leaders today need simple, flexible, visible, integrated tools that:

  • Show the logic sequence behind strategy
  • Connect choices across products, markets, and capabilities
  • Drive better decisions and visible results

That shift has already driven over $2B in incremental EBITDA for clients — by raising both the quality of decision-making and their batting average under pressure.

Executives don't need more descriptions.
They need Strategy 2.0 — a decision system.

That's why I built MOVE™ — the algorithm that makes strategy visible.
It connects:

Question for you:

When was the last time your strategy session ended with real choices — not just charts?

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