e-Strategy Pure and Simple
Chapter One
Strategic Fuzziness ²: Page Four

Which quadrant do you think most companies find themselves in? I have asked this question to more than 3000 CEOs all over the world and the answer is always the same. Eighty to ninety percent of these CEOs tell me that most companies reside in quadrant B: operationally competent but strategically deficient. Many CEOs even include their own company in this observation. In other words, most executives can keep the "numbers" coming out right quarter after quarter, but they don't have a shared understanding of what the company will look like as a result of all that churning. I call this the "Christopher Columbus School of Management":

• When he left, he did not know where he was going;
• When he got there, he did not know where he was;
• When he got back, he couldn't tell where he had been!