Rich Horwath: Stop Wasting Time on Business Strategy That Doesn't Work

April 1, 2026·30 min·2 clips

Rich Horwath, called the world's foremost expert on strategic thinking, reveals why most leaders fail at strategy from the start.

Everything cannot be the priority. Rich Horwath starts with the leadership problem in plain language: when strategy is not written down, leaders chase fire drills and new opportunities instead of asking whether the work helps the business win. Adam keeps the pace practical. Strategy and action need to live in the same room, not sit in a one-year, three-year, or five-year plan that everyone politely ignores. Rich's fix is a strategy tune-up. He recommends bringing the team together every 90 days for one to two hours and asking what is working, what is not, and what has changed with customers, competitors, and the market. Annual planning does not carry enough weight on its own. He compares the once-a-year strategy meeting to a birthday with signage and fanfare: fun for a moment, easy to forget once the year gets moving. Resource allocation becomes the test. Rich cites McKinsey research saying revenue growth comes from moving resources during the year away from what is failing and toward what is working. Adam picks up the operational edge. The conversation connects strategy to engagement, with Adam bringing in Gallup's Q12 survey and the claim that middle management drives much of engagement's impact on organizational results. The tone stays warm and direct. Rich sounds less like someone protecting a consulting model and more like a coach telling leaders to make strategy visible, current, and usable. Written strategy protects the team. It gives leaders a calmer way to say no, because the question becomes whether the request fits the strategy, not whether someone feels excited about it. The close turns personal. Rich shares the idea of an identity statement, a morning reset that names who he is and who he wants to serve before the day begins. Adam calls it mental programming. His read is simple: the same discipline that keeps a company focused can also shape how a leader shows up each day.

As heard by us

Horwath makes strategy feel usable: write it down, revisit it every 90 days, and move resources toward what is working.

Rich Horwath treats strategy less like a yearly ritual and more like a working filter. It should be written down, checked every 90 days, and used to decide what gets dropped when fire drills and new opportunities start piling up.

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Why you'd press play

Use this when your strategy keeps losing to the next fire drill.

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