You're hitting your targets. But are you executing a strategy?

I speak with a lot of founders running companies between ten and a hundred people. Almost all of them are doing fine. Revenue is there, customers are happy, the team is busy. And still, many of them carry the same unease: things are going well, but they're not going anywhere in particular.

It nearly always comes down to the same thing. They set goals. They don't execute a strategy.

"Most companies don't execute a strategy. They set targets and then they either hit them or they don't. And they're mainly focused on operations, on the day-to-day tasks."

That sounds like splitting hairs, but the difference is large. It's the difference between a company that in two years is the same company, and one that looks different by then.

KPIs look backwards. Strategy looks forward.

Your KPIs tell you how things are going. Revenue, margin, retention, utilisation. Those matter, because they let you pay salaries and tell you whether you're still on course. But they're about yesterday and today.

Rocks and OKRs are something else. They're about what you want to be different in three months, a year, three years. They move your company somewhere.

"KPIs are very much about the past and about today. Rocks and OKRs, your strategy, that contributes to the future of your company. This can mean that in two years you have a completely different business."

Most founders mix the two up. They call "20% more revenue" their strategy. That's not a strategy, it's a target. The strategy is what you'll change so that revenue shows up: which customers you'll stop serving, which channel you'll build, which role you'll fill that doesn't exist yet.

A goal is an outcome. A strategy is a choice.

Why it gets stuck in operations

Not out of unwillingness. It's simply what shouts loudest.

Operations have deadlines. Customers calling, a quote that has to go out today, someone on the team who's stuck. Strategy has none of that. Nobody calls because you haven't touched your quarterly goal. So it slides, week after week, until the quarter is over and you notice nothing happened.

In companies where the founder is still in delivery, this happens almost every time. Not because they don't want to, but because the role of operator and the role of director eat each other. Whoever spends the day putting out fires never gets to the question of what company they're actually building.

"Growing seriously takes a different approach. You have to take more direction over that growth path into the future."

Taking direction doesn't mean working harder. It means there's room and rhythm where the strategic questions actually land on the table, and that what you agree there stays visible instead of disappearing into meeting notes.

Two modes, and you're only in one

In practice I see two ways of working. Neither is wrong, but they produce very different companies.

Operating mode. You're active in delivery yourself. You put out whatever is burning. Decisions route through you. There's growth, but it's the growth that comes your way, not the growth you chose.

Strategy mode. You set direction with your team, and delivery sits with the people doing the work. There's a rhythm in which you adjust. Growth is an outcome of choices, not of chance.

The tricky part is that operating mode doesn't feel like a problem. You hit your targets, the team is content, there's work. Only when you look back two years do you see the company is still the same company, just with more people in it.

Which game are you actually playing?

Ultimately this is a choice, and there's no right answer.

"Am I mainly going to make my staff and my customers really happy? Or am I going to think: hey, this is my vision. I want to build that kind of company. It has to be worth this much and we're going to do it this way. That's simply a particular game."

Running a healthy company where people enjoy working is a perfectly good game. Seriously. Not everyone needs to build towards an exit or triple in size.

But it helps enormously to know which game you're in. Because most of the frustration I run into sits exactly there: someone plays the operating game and measures themselves against the yardstick of the growth game. Then you're always doing it wrong.

The methodology matters less than you think

Once you pick the growth game, the question becomes which method to follow. Scaling Up, EOS, OGSM, 4DX. A lot has been written about that.

"It all comes out the same. You can follow Scaling Up, but you can also follow OGSM. And there are a few more. But they all do exactly the same thing. They just use different words."

They all say: decide where you're going, cut it into quarters, give each piece an owner, measure whether it's moving, and come together periodically to adjust. Rocks or OKRs, V/TO or One Page Strategic Plan, it's the same motion in different words.

So choosing a method isn't your biggest problem. Executing is.

From my own practice: I've seen companies that had read the entire Scaling Up book, spent two days offsite and come away with a beautiful plan. Six weeks later that plan was in a drawer. Not because the plan was bad, but because nothing kept it alive. A method gives you the words. A system gives you the repetition.

The simplest test

There's one question that's usually enough.

Where is your strategy right now? In your head? On a flip chart still leaning against a wall somewhere? In a deck from last year? Or in a system your team actually worked with this week?

If your team doesn't bump into it daily, your strategy doesn't really exist. You have a document. And documents don't change companies.

That's exactly where most plans die: not in the making, but in the keeping alive. Someone has to see every week what is and isn't moving, and that has to be visible without needing a meeting for it.

Where to start

You don't need two days offsite to begin.

Start with the separation. Put your KPIs and your Rocks side by side and be honest about how much of what you call "strategy" is really just a target. That conversation alone often yields more than a session.

Then pick one thing for this quarter that structurally changes your company. Not five. One. Give it an owner and a date, and make it visible somewhere your team actually goes.

And ask yourself which game you're playing. Because if the answer is "the operating game, and that's fine", that alone saves you a lot of unease.

Want to know where your company stands and whether the bottleneck is you or the system? Our audit walks through your stage, your product-market fit and your business health in ten minutes, and shows what to set up first.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is the difference between a KPI and a Rock?

A KPI measures how something is running now and keeps running: revenue per month, retention, utilisation. A Rock is a change you want to land this quarter and that is done afterwards: a new channel live, a role filled, a process replaced. KPIs guard your current business, Rocks build your next one.

Can I do strategy without a leadership team?

Yes, but it's fragile. Without a leadership team you're the only one putting strategic questions on the table, and then they always lose to operations. As soon as two or three people feel ownership of a piece of the plan, it runs far better by itself.

How many Rocks can you handle per quarter?

Three to five for the company, one to three per person. More sounds ambitious but delivers less: with ten Rocks everything moves a little and nothing finishes by the end of the quarter.

I'm hitting my targets. Why change anything?

Maybe you shouldn't. If your company does what you want and you like how it goes, there's no problem. This question only becomes relevant when you notice your company isn't moving in the direction you have in mind, even though the numbers look right.

Do I need to implement a method like Scaling Up or EOS?

Not necessarily. The methods largely do the same thing. What matters more is that what you agree stays visible and comes back weekly. Pick the words that fit your team and make sure something holds the rhythm for you.