The Strategie uit het Hart 2025 monitor, conducted by Branddoctors among 301 executives, managers and staff, puts a figure on the problem: 95% of employees call their company's strategy coherent. Only 52% of managers and staff feel involved in executing it. That is a 43-point gap between strategic alignment on paper and strategic mobilisation in practice.
The data surfaces five execution obstacles. Two go to the heart of the gap.
The boardroom sees a different organisation
Managers and staff overwhelmingly experience strategy as something that belongs to the top - something decided elsewhere, communicated downward and disconnected from daily work. Leadership, meanwhile, sees the strategy as clear, motivating and coherent. Both are right from where they sit. But the gap between those two realities means that the reflex to "make the message clearer" misses the point entirely. The problem is not comprehension. It is ownership.
Involvement cannot be retrofitted
Nearly all board members feel involved in strategy execution. Among managers and staff, barely half do. And when asked what would close that gap, they do not ask for more communication. They ask for earlier involvement, visible input into the process and a concrete translation to their team's priorities.
This reframes the challenge. Involvement is not an engagement issue to solve with internal campaigns after launch. It is a design variable that determines whether strategic capital gets deployed or written off.
"It's not rocket science; it's people work. The volume of strategic change has never been this high, but the conditions for execution are still treated as an afterthought. They need to be built in from day one."
Building the bridge from day one
Organisations that treat execution conditions as an afterthought are not just losing momentum: they are destroying the return on their strategic investments. In a market where transformation is no longer optional but a condition for profitability and competitive survival, the differentiator is the more than the quality of strategy. It is the capacity to mobilise. To bridge the gap between boardroom ambition and work-floor action. To connect. The bridge needs to be built into the process from day one, or it doesn't exist.
The full report includes all five execution obstacles, boardroom-versus-work-floor data splits and the conditions for ensuring your strategy comes from the heart. → https://www.branddoctors.com/actueel/strategie-monitor-2026