24 Surprising Business Strategy Statistics in 2025 (Business & Management Team)

Business strategy is one of the most important aspects of any business. If you can get it right, you’ll be able to greatly improve your profits.

However, execution can be tricky, and there are a number of statistics that you may not know about that could make or break your success.

90% of organizations fail to execute their strategies successfully and your company might be one of them.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the key statistics reported by Harvard Business Review that affect execution or any business strategy, and how you can use these statistics to your advantage.

Strategy Execution Needs Alignment

1. 80% of managers think they have the funds needed to achieve their goals.

Although most managers reported having the funds to allow them to help the team to achieve their goals, most companies struggle to execute their strategy.

2. 84% of managers think they can depend on direct reports and their upper management

4 in 5 managers feel that they can depend on their upper management to provide the necessary support and trust their direct report can be relied on to successfully execute the planned objective toward the performance goals.

3. 9% of managers think they can somewhat depend on coworkers in other departments and business units

The level of trust managers have in their coworkers in other business units is much lower than promises made by external parties such as the distributers and supplies who work with the company.

4. 4.5% of managers think they can always depend on coworkers in other departments and business units

Less than 1 in 20 managers think they can rely on their coworkers from another department to get things done.

Most managers think they can depend more on an outsider than on people within the company. This is very worrying, knowing the collaboration between departments is essential for the company’s success.

5. 3 times more likely to achieve their performance goals if no cross-business coordination is required.

Most managers feel insufficient support from other business units is the main reason that leads to performance goals not being met.

Successful Strategy Execution Depends on Coordination Between Departments and Business Units

6. 36% of issues that occur due to failure to coordinate between coworkers in other departments and business units leading to conflicts

Failure to coordinate between business units will often lead to conflicts which can be detrimental to the future success of the organization.

7. 38% of issues that occur due to failure to coordinate are resolved after a long delay.

2 out of 5 issues that arise due to coordination can be resolved but only after a long period of time where the issue can lead to lasting damage to the company.

8. 14% of issues that occur due to failure to coordinate are resolved quickly but poorly.

Issues that are resolved quickly often lead to below-average quality.

9. 12% of issues that occur due to failure to coordinate are left unresolved.

More than 1 in 10 issues that occur due to coordination failure will be left unresolved, which limits the probability of success in achieving the business goals.

Adaptability Determine Successful Strategy Execution

10. 1 in 3 managers face difficulties adapting to change in the company

Failure to adapt to change in the company is often the main reason why the team is unable to meet performance objectives.

11. 1 in 10 managers thinks that the ability to adapt to change is the key to successful strategy execution.

Although failure to adapt is the main reason why any business unit is unable to meet performance objectives, only 1 in 10 managers realized that it is the case.

12. 29% of the company fail to adapt which leads to a lost business opportunity.

Most companies fail to hit performance goals or are forced to close down mainly due to their inability to adapt to the constant changes in the current world.

Digitalization becoming one of the most important factors that determine a company’s success. More companies are moving to remote work arrangements and companies who are unable to adapt to the changes will have many of their talents going to companies that can adapt to the changes.

13. 24% of the company are able to adapt to change but lose sight of the company’s overall business strategy.

The ability to adapt must coincide with the business’s strategic goals, but 1 in 4 companies lost its direction after the changes in the organization which can be detrimental to the company’s success.

Allocation of Company’s Resources is Important

14. 1 in 3 managers think the company is able to allocate funds to the right places quickly.

The allocation of the fund is the job of the CEO and the upper management team. The fund is the lifeline of an organization’s ability to operate, and less than half of all managers think the company is able to do this effectively.

15. 1 in 5 managers think the company is able to allocate people to support business strategy.

People are the most important resource of the company, and only 20% of the managers think the company is able to allocate the right people to support business strategy, which explains why so many businesses fail.

16. 47% of the managers don’t shift people across business units.

Inability to make changes to the human resource leads to the organization’s inability to adapt to the constant changes in the ever-changing environment.

17. 80% of the managers think the company fails to change a failing business strategy.

Failure to adapt or to change the current failing business strategy is the leading cause of why big companies fail.

Examples such as Nokia, Polaroid, Blockbuster, Kodak, MySpace, and Yahoo were once the leader in their respective industry, but have failed to adapt and fall from their former glory.

18. 11% of the managers think their company has the resources to succeed in achieving their business strategic execution.

9 out of 10 managers think their company will fail their business goals due to the lack of resources such as funds, people, and capability.

This is the main reason that the company is unable to set strategic priorities on tasks that will benefit the company the most.

Communication Can Impact Business Strategy Execution

19. Less than one-third of the management team is able to list down 2 out of 5 organization’s strategic priorities

70% of the management team doesn’t have an idea of what the organization is diving and what makes the organization succeed.

Not knowing the company’s goal, explains why most organizations fail.

20. 55% of middle management are able to list down one of the organization’s strategic priorities

Only half of the middle management knows at least one of the organization’s strategic priorities, the other half is often unaware of the future of the company.

When the leadership team doesn’t know where to go, the team will basically become lost sheeps doing things that provide little to no value that can benefit the organization.

21. 50% of the C-suite cannot connect the dots between strategic priorities

When the top leaders cannot connect the dots between the different strategic priorities, the future of the company will become unclear.

With no clear goals, each strategic priority may contradict the other, this can lead to inefficiency in resource planning and overall business continuation of the organization.

22. 70% of the upper management team don’t understand the connection between different strategic priorities

With less than half of the C-Suite knowing how each of the strategic priorities connects with each other, even fewer upper management team knows why they are doing, what they are doing.

23. 84% of middle and lower management don’t know how each strategic priorities connect with each other

The middle and lower management teams often do not have the big picture of what the future of the company looks like. This makes sense when most of the upper management team don’t know why they are doing, what they are doing as well.

24. 1 in 4 managers think the lack of understanding of strategic priorities is due to frequent changes in strategic priorities

Frequently changing strategic priorities leads to confusion amount the management team.