The Decisive Company: How High-Performance Organizations Connect Strategy to Execution
Steven Elliott
Houndstooth Press (February 2025)

“Vision without execution is hallucination.”  Thomas Edison

I agree with Edison and so does Steven Elliott.

Organizations today face challenges that are more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than at any prior time that I can remember.

In some situations, speed can kill but in situations in which an important decision must be made quickly, speed can be the difference between success and failure.

I agree with Elliott: “In today’s world, speed isn’t optional. — it’s survival.

“The pace of change has never been faster, and the cost of indecision has never been higher. Competitors are moving quicker. Customers are demanding more [and expecting it sooner]. Markets shift overnight. Leaders know they need to act, yet many organizations remain paralyzed. As a result, decisions are delayed, diluted, or distorted.

“And in a rapidly changing world, that’s deadly.”

Elliott then quotes Jeff Bezos; ‘If you’re good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be very expensive for sure.”

Whatever its size and nature may be, every organization needs effective decision-making at all levels and in all areas of operation throughout the given enterprise.  As you proceed with efforts to connect strategy to execution, stress these key points:

o The recognition that “none of us is as smart as all of us”
o Tapping not only the so-called wisdom of the crowd but also of those who lead it
o The use of data and analytics to support — sometimes even make — decisions
o Information technology that enables and then supports better decisions

Shrewdly, Davenport and Manville focus in their book on an exceptionally diverse group and the major decisions to be made. They include NASA STS-119 “Should we launch?”), McKinsey & Company (“Should we recruit from a different pool of talent?”), Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (“How can we improve student performance?”), Ancient Athenians (How can we defend against a life-or-death invasion?”), and the (DeWitt and Lila) Wallace Foundation (“How can we focus a strategy for more mission impact?”). These mini-case studies achieve two critically important objectives. First, they help the reader to understand how each of the major decisions was made? Also, they help the reader to understand what lessons can be learned from the process by which the decisions were made.

As Elliott fully understands and appreciates, all organizations can establish and then constantly improve a collaborative process by which organizational judgment produces a much higher percentage of appropriate decisions. This does not require a Great Leader but it does require crisp and decisive leadership. It also requires development of collective leadership of results-driven initiatives) at all levels and in all areas. And it also requires constant communication, cooperation, and (especially) collaboration between and among everyone involved.

You and others who absorb and digest the material in The Decisive Company will be especially grateful for Elliott’s skillful use of a presentation format based on The Stakes, The Challenge of Modern Decision-Making, What to Expect, Why This Matters, How to Get the Most from This Book, and  How to Use This Book.

Steven Elliott focuses on WHAT is most important to high-impact, inclusive decision-making and then thoroughly explains HOW.

This is emphatically a must-read for all executives.

However, it would be a fool’s errand for you to attempt to adopt and adapt all of the information that Elliot provides, especially recommendations.

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Here are two other suggestions while you are reading The Decisive Company: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to end-of-chapter “Knowledge Map” material as well as to supplementary material in eight invaluable appendices. Steven Elliott also makes brilliant use of various reader-friendly devices (e.g.mini-case studies and key takeaways) throughout his lively and eloquent narrative.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.