In order to even better understand how companies perceive strategy, 2by2 has launched a strategy survey that focuses specifically on trying to assess key aspects of the functional area of strategy. The 2by2 strategy survey report for 2012 has just been issued and is shared with all executives that have contributed with their perspectives in the survey. If you would like to get your own copy of the 2by2 strategy report 2012, please fill in the survey and we will make the report available for you to download.

Below is a brief executive summary of some of the key findings from the 2012 survey:

There is a strong belief among the respondents of the survey that strategy has the ability to clearly impact a company’s business result; this underlines the importance of strategy. While many people can see the potential of strategy, the definition of the concept of strategy is believed to be ambiguous. Furthermore, the definition of strategy is not believed to be the only challenge with strategy; implementation clearly stands out as a major challenge in realizing value through strategy.

One of the interesting findings from the survey is that despite all the challenges related to strategy, most of the respondents believe that strategy has been clearly defined in their own company. However, even though most respondents believe their companies have a clearly defined strategy, few believe that the strategy has a direct impact on the companies’ performance.

By looking more closely at the strategies defined in the companies of the survey respondents, we found it very interesting that not one single respondent indicated that they have chosen to compete with price leadership.

Finally, we could conclude that development of strategy has largely been delegated in the organizations in the survey. The board of directors, which we at 2by2 believe is ultimately responsible for a company’s strategy, is not even involved in more than half of the strategy processes.