Throughout my business career, there was much talk devoted to the concept of “strategy.”

I found it to be one of the most overused, but least understood, concepts out there.

The single best definition that I’ve ever heard is that strategy is the “alignment of vision with capabilities.”

I got this in a magnificent work called “On Grand Strategy.”

I’ve probably read it 5 times.

That’s not to say strategy is not important, it is, but it pales in comparison to execution.

And the best book I ever read on that was, appropriately named, “Execution.”

None of this is a profound insight.

Everyone knows it.

But I’ve recently been reminded, in a few different arenas, that it’s easy and common to over-think strategy and underweight execution.

My favorite example of a place where strategy is easy, but execution difficult?

“Happy Wife, Happy Life.”

:-)

P.S. Cover image generated by AI based on text. I went with the first version. Proof that execution is difficult.