The Strategy Trap: Why Great Plans Fail at Execution

Kevin Ertell, who progressed from Tower Records clerk to SVP before holding senior roles at Borders, Sur La Table, and Nike, discusses his book “The Strategy Trap: Why Companies Fail at Execution and How to Get It Right.” He presents the Six Cs framework (co-creation, clarity, capacity, communication, coordination, coaching), arguing that “strategy writing is the first step of execution, not a precursor to it.” Topics include co-creation driving commitment via the IKEA effect, pre-launch capacity creation, early and continuous communication, organizational structure scaled to size, and how stack-ranked priorities outperform high-medium-low categorization.