Flat-Pack Strategy: Why Organisations Keep Building Wobbly Furniture
Most organisations approach strategy the way the rest of us approach IKEA furniture: with optimism, a hex key, and the faint hope that it will somehow hold together. On paper, the instructions look clear. In practice, you’re missing three screws, the diagram’s in Swedish, and someone has already lost the Allen key.
Strategy Creation: The Showroom Fantasy
When organisations design a strategy, it often looks like an IKEA showroom. Perfectly staged, everything gleams, and no one can imagine it going wrong. Leaders admire the glossy diagrams and nod in unison: “Yes, this is exactly what we need.” But strategy creation in the boardroom is a lot like circling a couch you’ll never fit through the doorway. It’s an idealised picture—aspirational, neat, and untouched by the chaos of real life.
Where’s the Allen Key?
Once the strategy leaves the showroom, reality hits. The tools needed to make it work—clarity of purpose, alignment across teams, consistent communication—are mysteriously missing. Instead, managers improvise with whatever they can find: a bent paperclip, an outdated org chart, maybe a consultant’s slide from 2012. The result is hours of fiddling, swearing, and, eventually, the realisation that one leg of the plan is still in the wrong place.
The Manual Is in Swedish
Many strategies are copied straight from elsewhere: “Google does this,” “Amazon does that.” But lifting another company’s playbook without translation is like building a bookcase with instructions in Swedish and a ruler marked in inches. You might get something that resembles the picture, but it won’t fit your space or your people. Context matters. A strategy that isn’t translated to local realities becomes an awkward, oversized cabinet blocking the hallway.
Missing Parts, Extra Screws
Then comes execution. Suddenly, crucial pieces are nowhere to be found. Funding that was promised evaporates, key stakeholders disappear, and the talent pool shrinks just when you need it most. Meanwhile, extra committees and surprise projects appear, rattling around like those mystery screws you can’t place. Strategy loves to assume all the parts will be there. Execution proves otherwise.
Flat-Pack Leadership
Even when the thing is finally “assembled,” it often wobbles. The boardroom sees a sleek new unit. Employees see a lopsided contraption that groans under pressure. Flat-pack leadership produces glossy PowerPoint models and polished slogans, but when tested, they buckle. The plan might look great in the photo, but no one trusts it to hold weight.
The Real Test
A strategy that lasts isn’t flat-pack at all. It’s more like custom joinery. It takes craft, care, and the willingness to measure twice before cutting once. It means adapting the design when reality doesn’t match the plan, and making sure it can hold the actual weight of people, processes, and change. Flat-pack furniture may be cheap and cheerful, but flat-pack strategy costs far more than it saves.