Execution, Not Innovation, Is the New Battleground

The Lack of Alignment Between Strategy and Execution

What if the secret to staying world-class isn’t more innovation—but mastering execution? At a recent conference, Gartner dropped a bombshell: organizations aiming to lead their industries should consider spending 8 times more on execution than on innovation. Yes, you read that right—8 times. This isn’t a dismissal of innovation; it’s still critical. But with breakthroughs happening faster, cheaper, and more aggressively than ever, the real challenge is keeping up. Agility in execution is now the differentiator—and it’s where the money needs to flow.

So, where do we invest to stay agile? Technology is the obvious answer. Take SAP S/4HANA: it’s built as a digital backbone, enabling companies to gather real-time insights, respond instantly, and even rethink entire business models. As SAP’s new slogan puts it, “Run simple, run live.” But here’s the catch: technology alone won’t save you. History proves it.

To align strategy with execution, organizations will need to overcome these top five barriers that continuously drive a wedge between people (and their behaviors) and best practice/system process:

1. Trust in Data and Teams: the lack of trust in the SAP data, eliminates our ability to turn information into insights. Furthermore, the lack of trust in our colleagues and their intentions builds bigger walls around our organization’s siloes and drives a wedge between strategic goals and tactical objectives.
2. Fear of Conflict: conflict stems from mistrust (refer to point #1). The fear of addressing the conflict amongst teams and individuals is a fundamental constraint to achieving high performance in our organization. Fear of effectively addressing system “conflicts” is also a fundamental constraint of achieving high-performance processes. System “conflicts”, also known as exceptions, help point users to identify the tactical execution activities that are not aligned with business rules & strategies.
3. Lack of Commitment: not trusting our people and systems, and our inability to deal with conflict, puts weight on our ability to commit to each other, commit to business targets and more importantly commit to daily disciplines that help us follow through on the business strategy.
4. Embrace Accountability: the lack of commitment means that we will avoid accountability. I.e. accountability to our commitments/targets and our ability to understand the end to end impact of our actions. This lack of accountability will minimize our ability to achieve the targets we have set for ourselves or the business.
5. Focus on Results: avoiding accountability limits our ability to set measurable targets. However, even if we achieve our targets, we fail to set new and higher targets due to the complacency of achievement. It is never the end, and good is never good enough.

A Holistic Fix

To address these challenges, Reveal’s approach tackles this head-on, blending people, processes, and best practices into a unified engine. Digital is thrilling, and S/4HANA is a powerhouse platform to seize it—but only if you’re ready. Past disruptions taught us that tech without alignment is a recipe for frustration. By weaving strategic intent into tactical execution and addressing systems, processes, and human behavior together, organizations can step into this era with confidence.

If you are interested in more information on this topic, this Webinar series will help viewers how to prepare your business, mature your organization, and equip your team to unlock S/4HANA’s full potential. Don’t let the next wave catch you off guard.