I once worked with a consumer manufacturing company trying to enter a new region. They had hired me to help sharpen their go-to-market plan. The Head of Marketing welcomed me with a confident grin and said, “Mr Strategy, we already know what the market wants. Premium quality. People here are tired of being cheap.”
I asked him, “How do you know?”
He chuckled. “We’ve done this before. This is my bread and butter. It’s common sense.”
Common sense? That is where the danger began.
So I did what I always do before giving any advice, I asked for facilitation and went to the ground. I visited local distributors. Retail shops. Sat with mid-level traders in open markets. Watched customers as they examined products. I asked what they liked, what they hated, and what they wished were different. I even sat in on a few customer complaints that the board never sees.
The truth hit hard. The customers did not care for the premium. They cared for function. Something simple, affordable, that would not break in two months. They wanted a product they could trust. Something they wouldn’t be blamed for bringing home.
But the company had already spent money on glossy packaging, premium branding, and celebrity endorsements. They were preparing a five-star meal, yet their customers just wanted warm soup.
This is what happens when you build strategy from the boardroom, not the field.
Here is what I have found out:
Most strategies fail because leaders fall in love with their ideas and ignore the customer’s reality. They imagine a market that doesn’t exist. They design for who they wish their customers were, not who they actually are.
That’s how banks lose market share. They chase high-end digital apps while farmers still queue to deposit cash. Before making that app, what are the assumptions on uptake? How many customers do you expect? What is the app’s break-even point? Why spend a fortune developing an app that your core clientele – the 20% who bring the 80% of your revenue – is not interested?
That is how hospitals underperform. They invest in smart beds while patients line up for Panadol.
That is how retail chains collapse. They design stores for ambience but forget the everyday shopper just wants clear prices and fast service.
Start with the customer. Go beyond pulse surveys. Undertake extensive customer understanding.
My leadership challenge for you today
Test your assumptions before they become expenses. If your strategy starts with “we believe,” stop. Replace belief with evidence. Go into the field. Don’t delegate insight. Live it.
Mr Strategy’s tool–Market Shadowing Mandate
Every executive must spend one working day each quarter with a real customer or field-level employee. No titles. No presentations. Just observation and interaction. After the day, they must submit a one-page insight:
a) What surprised you?
b) What’s one thing you would change in your department because of what you saw?
c) What was the customer really trying to do?
The insight must influence a budget decision in the next 30 days. That’s how strategy returns to reality.
a) Print this table. Post it in the boardroom.
b) Use it to test your team’s readiness to lead in the real world, not just in meetings.
c) If your leaders can’t answer these questions, they’re leading with a blindfold.
If you’re not close to your customer, you’re not doing strategy. You’re just cooking blindfolded. And sooner or later, the soup will spoil.
Get out of the boardroom. Go where the truth lives.
I remain, Mr Strategy.
