As leaders, we want our employees to be innovative, always looking for ways to better please our customers, right?
Actually no. Or should I say, not when it comes at the expense of achieving your strategy.
Let’s illustrate with a scenario. Imagine for a moment that you are CEO of a budget airline. You know the ones I’m talking about – the “no-free-luggage, no TVs, pack-your-own snacks” companies that offer low fares and not much else.
You’ve differentiated yourself from the competition by offering rock-bottom prices. Your target customer is someone who wants to get from A to B as cheaply as possible. They need to save money, and they’re willing to go without in-flight entertainment and free sodas to do so.
A well-meaning member of your marketing team approaches you and said they’ve been reading negative customer reviews. Thirty-two percent of reviews mention the lack of seat-back pockets. For $250,000, a pocket could be added to the back of every seat on every plane, giving passengers a place to store their books and phones.
Eliminate 1/3 of bad reviews for a relatively small investment? No brainer. Until we look more carefully about how this decision aligns with our strategy.
You find that it will take five minutes longer per plane to clean these seat pockets. This delay compounds, forcing you to eliminate one flight per day to keep the planes on schedule. You compensate for lost profit by raising each airline ticket by $2. A minimal impact to be sure, but this is just one “good idea.” What happens when you implement a few more?
Before long, you’ve priced out your core customers – the ones who chose your airline for its affordability. But hey, at least they have those seat-back pockets.
The Danger of Misaligned Innovation
Well-intended fixes can cost your company its competitive edge – the “death by 1,000 good ideas” I refer to in the title. It’s more common than you might think – in fact, it’s one of the top three reasons I see companies struggle.
An organization can have dozens or even hundreds of operationally minded leaders, all with well-intended ideas. But if they’re executing on choices that don’t support strategy, they can undermine its success.
Winning happens when you’re clear on your priorities – and act only on those that support your ultimate goals.
Is Your Strategy Clear and Actionable?
When organizations lack strategic focus, it shows. It often sounds like:
“It takes forever to get things done around here.”
“It’s so-and-so’s fault.”
“We’re a siloed organization.”
When we hear these expressions, we tend to address the symptoms. (For example, if you realize you’re a siloed organization, you may begin working to break down those internal walls.) But that may just be a symptom, not the root cause.
The cause is likely an unclear strategy – or at least a strategy that is not being shared in a way that is understood or can be quickly put into action. Aligning ideas with corporate strategy and expressing them in terms of what matters most, of what creates differentiation and competitive value in the marketplace, needs to be super-clear at all levels of leadership. Then, when someone is choosing how to structure their team or selecting the next strategic investment at a mid-level part of the company, those choices can be measured against a clear and actionable strategy.
Strategic Clarity in Action
Two companies come to mind when I think of the power of strategic clarity. The first is Ryanair, a budget airline with a policy of unapologetic operational efficiency. When asked about their cost-effective but strict refund policy, CEO Michael O’Leary said, “Will we give you a refund on a nonrefundable ticket because your granny died unexpectedly?” No! Go away. We’re not interested in your sob stories! What part of ‘no refund’ do you not understand?”
In lieu of frills and friendly customer service, the airline is committed to on-time departures and low fares. In January 2025, Ryanair reported a 10% revenue increase – proof that sticking to strategy works.
The second is Apple as led in the 90s and early 2000s by Steve Jobs. Jobs famously said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
Jobs wasn’t afraid to say no to ideas that were beloved by some but didn’t represent the future of Apple tech. Case in point: the Apple Newton, a stylus-dependent personal digital assistant. Despite initial popularity and significant investment, Jobs killed the product to focus on touchpad devices. Anyone use an iPhone lately?
Knowing When to Say Yes
That doesn’t mean you should be a no-person: saying no to everything is anti-cultural. It means being more disciplined and more aligned with what you say ‘yes’ to. If my team is growing, for example, should I just add more headcount within the roles I currently know and understand? Or do I step back a little and consider – based on the company’s strategic direction – whether I might need a different role or different skillsets. Perhaps I should invest in digital or technology enablement talent, versus simply going with what is known and comfortable to me.
When Quick is Better than Nothing
I’m also reminded of a quote from General George Patton that I encountered during my military career; “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” One can wait around in the hope and expectation that leaders can eventually fix all the organizational misalignments. Or we can decide, “It may be not perfect, but I’m going to get my strategy out there quickly and I’m going to make it as actionable as possible. Then, I’ll empower my team and expect the team members to make decisions against that strategy.”
I believe that organizations that can do this better than other organizations have significant competitive advantage and simply get more of the right things done.
Don’t Let Good Ideas Kill Your Chance of Success
Innovation is essential, but it must be strategic. Decide what separates you from the competition, make choices that support that strategy and empower your team to act accordingly. The most successful organizations aren’t those that set out to please everyone – they’re the ones who know exactly who their customers are, what’s important to them and how to deliver.
