--- title: "Why Your Strategy Needs a Fresh Perspective — And How AI Fits In (Part 1) - In Parallel" description: "Static strategies can’t keep up with today’s pace of change — and most organizations feel the pain through misalignment and stalled initiatives. This post explores the root cause: the Strategy–Market Gap, and introduces GPS, a new, AI-friendly approach to strategy that helps companies adapt faster and execute with greater precision." url: https://www.in-parallel.com/insight/why-your-strategy-needs-a-fresh-perspective-part-1 --- Strategy Execution # Why Your Strategy Needs a Fresh Perspective — And How AI Fits In (Part 1) Your strategy is only as good as its ability to adapt — in real time. Why Your Strategy Needs a Fresh Perspective — And How AI Fits In (Part 1) Published May 8, 2025 Kristian Luoma Co-founder, CPO kristian@in-parallel.com [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kluoma/) Contents In today’s business landscape, traditional strategy models often fall short, failing to keep up with rapid change. Organizations frequently struggle with misalignment between strategy and execution — what we call the Strategy-Market Gap. This two-part series explores both the problem and the solution. Part 1 examines why static strategy approaches break down and why a fresh perspective is needed. Part 2 then introduces a structured framework — GPS (Goals–Problems–Solutions) — that enables organizations to continuously adapt and align execution with strategic priorities. ## Why Strategy Needs to Be Machine-Readable When we started In Parallel, our goal was ambitious but clear: find a way to capture and codify business strategies so they could not only guide human decision-making but also serve as a “learning layer” for AI. We knew that companies aiming to stay competitive would need a systematic, iterative approach to strategy — especially in a world where AI is rapidly transforming knowledge work. Back then — what feels like a lifetime ago in AI terms — we anticipated that businesses would soon turn to AI to enhance human decision-making. But honestly, we didn’t fully anticipate how quickly AI would become a near-ubiquitous “exoskeleton” for middle management, leadership, and beyond. Now that it’s happening, one thing is evident: if AI and the new agents-based technologies are going to help you excel in the workplace, just like humans, it needs visibility into your strategy. It’s not enough for AI to know your personal preferences (think: memory) or operational metrics — it needs to understand your higher-level goals, the biggest obstacles to those goals, and how best to overcome them. On our mission to crack the code, we’ve spent the past two years uncovering exciting insights into what it truly means to represent strategy in a “machine-readable” format. The biggest obstacle on this journey so far was the realization that nearly everyone defines “strategy” differently. Some see it as an overarching plan, others as an integrated set of choices, and still others see it as an exercise done once every five years. We’ve seen how these differences lead to confusion, jargon overload, and missed opportunities. A key to success is establishing a shared language and ensuring alignment on terminology. For us, the challenge was defining strategy in a universal, clear, and AI-friendly way — one that honored the nuances of different frameworks while remaining practical for machine processing. After codifying hundreds (if not thousands) of strategies, we developed a methodology that consistently resonates: **GPS** (Goals–Problems–Solutions). Before diving into why GPS is such a game-changer, let’s step back and consider the larger context: - Numerous studies show that up to 90% of strategic initiatives fail to achieve their intended outcomes. - 60% of teams end up misaligned or focused on work that doesn’t support strategic priorities. - As a result, companies struggle to adapt when the market shifts — leaving employees working on initiatives that get canceled or fail to deliver meaningful impact. Why does this happen? Simply put, a static strategy alone makes it difficult to determine the highest-value job to be done at any given moment. And as soon as a strategy is formulated, market conditions start to shift. We call this the Strategy-Market Gap. Much like the gap between product and market for startups, achieving the right fit is crucial for the success of enterprise strategy. ## The Strategy–Market Gap One of the most common issues we see is what we call the strategy–market gap. Companies invest heavily in a sequential strategy formulation process — often locking in annual or five-year goals — only to watch external changes invalidate those goals almost immediately. A competitor launches, tariffs roll out, a war breaks out, customer needs shift, AI capabilities evolve, or a global crisis hits. Suddenly, those neatly laid plans are shelved. A Chief Strategy Officer recently told us how, just four months into a new corporate strategy, urgent market realities forced them to halt every initiative and go into crisis mode. Why? Because the world moves faster than any static planning process can accommodate. In studying the teachings of strategy luminaries like Rumsfeld, Peter Compo, Roger Martin, and others, we consistently see one clear principle: strategy must be dynamic — adaptable and responsive to emerging challenges.. That’s precisely what GPS does — it enables you to continuously observe, prioritize, and solve the issues that threaten your overarching goals. ## Introducing the GPS Framework We define GPS as follows: 1. **Goals** – The strategic outcomes you want to achieve. 2. **Problems** – The blockers or obstacles (internal or external) that slow down or threaten progress toward those goals. ## Why GPS? Key levers, must-win battles, choices, and goals — all carry deep meaning and are carefully named for good reason. Unfortunately, computers don’t interpret these definitions the way we humans do. Traditional frameworks often emphasize the “big objectives” or “key metrics,” but fail to keep tabs on new obstacles that pop up in real time. OKRs, for example, map the path to an objective through key results — yet both can quickly break down when unexpected events occur. GPS, however, systematically identifies and prioritizes Problems so that you’re always tackling the most critical blockers first. Static strategies fail because they don’t evolve as conditions change. What’s needed is a more adaptive, structured way to continuously refine strategy in real time. That’s where GPS comes in. In [**Part 2**](https://www.in-parallel.com/insight/why-your-strategy-needs-a-fresh-perspective-part-2), we explore how GPS works, why it’s designed to be machine-readable, and how it helps organizations execute strategy with precision. ### Get insights like this in your inbox One email per week on execution intelligence, team coordination, and enterprise AI. No fluff. By subscribing you agree to our [Privacy Policy](https://www.in-parallel.com/privacy-policy). Unsubscribe anytime. [Back to all insights](https://www.in-parallel.com/insight) [Book a demo](https://www.in-parallel.com/demo) ## Related articles The Coordination Tax — Richard H. Carson on how change actually works Leadership Insights · Oct 20, 2026 ### You Either Manage Change or It Manages You: Richard H. Carson on how change actually works Richard H. Carson, PhD — 40 years inside county governments, regional planning agencies, nonprofits, and the state of Oregon — on why every organization has a risk manager but almost none has a change manager, and what that asymmetry costs. A rope suspension bridge over a dark river towards the fells, drawn in pen and watercolour AI in Business · Oct 9, 2026 ### AI-Assisted or AI-Native: The Bridge Is Shared Context At a CIO data event in Espoo, HumanX in Amsterdam and a post-merger integration forum, large companies explained how they brought AI in by mapping processes and fitting AI into the gaps. That keeps a structure built around human limits. Getting to AI-native means rebuilding information flows into shared context first. The Coordination Tax — Adam Christing on humor as leadership Leadership Insights · Oct 7, 2026 ### You Can't Fix Culture With a Mission Statement: Adam Christing on humor as leadership Adam Christing — professional master of ceremonies, founder of Clean Comedians, and author of The Laughter Factor — on why culture is a feeling rather than a statement, and why humor is the fastest way for a leader to shift it. The Coordination Tax — Jennifer Recla on the urgency mindset breaking your team Leadership Insights · Sep 22, 2026 ### Urgency Isn't Leadership. It's Addiction: Jennifer Recla on the mindset breaking your team Jennifer Recla — leadership coach who has worked with hundreds of leaders across nonprofits, mission-driven organizations, and large financial institutions — on the urgency mindset behind most organizational chaos, and why most leaders have no idea how much of it they're creating themselves. The Coordination Tax — Barry Wolfe on value-centric leadership Leadership Insights · Sep 15, 2026 ### HR Is the Last Line of Defense Against Chaos: Barry Wolfe on value-centric leadership Barry Wolfe — HR consultant, founder of Argos HR, and author of It's All in Your Head — on why HR is the last line of defense against organizational chaos, why every role needs 3–5 clear value outcomes, and why the foundation of a well-run company is one document under 300 words. Two colleagues sharing one open binder — context handed over at the resolution the other person needs Leadership Insights · Sep 9, 2026 ### Your Job Is Already Context Management On The Coordination Tax, Stanford's Robert E. Siegel put it as an equation: truth equals facts plus context. Facts are cheap now. Context is not. Read the manager's week against that equation and the 16.5 hours a week lost to coordination stop looking like overhead — they are context management, performed manually, by the most expensive person in the room. The Coordination Tax — Alberto Torres on surviving disruption Leadership Insights · Sep 8, 2026 ### You Can't Sword-Fight a Bullet: Alberto Torres on surviving disruption Alberto Torres — former Nokia executive, ex-McKinsey partner, and author of The Z Curve — on what actually happened at Nokia, why great peace-time leaders quietly fail in war-time, and what every company facing AI right now should learn from the companies that got disruption right. The Coordination Tax — Olivia Montgomery on why decisions belong lower in the org Leadership Insights · Sep 1, 2026 ### Your Leadership Doesn't Know What's Going On: Olivia Montgomery on why decisions belong lower in the org Olivia Montgomery — principal analyst at Data Frame and former Gartner researcher — on why every layer up the org chart knows less about what's really going on, and why the fix isn't more visibility for leadership but pushing decisions down two or three levels. The Coordination Tax — Craig Denison on the founder's hardest transition Leadership Insights · Aug 25, 2026 ### You Don't Get to Be the Rock Star Anymore: Craig Denison on the founder's hardest transition Craig Denison — head of growth at The Table Group (Patrick Lencioni's firm) and founder of Green Thumb Consulting — on the transition every founder hits when execution stops running through their brain, and why 99% of the time the founder is creating the dysfunction they are trying to fix. A manager mid-explanation, watch visible — the hour spent re-explaining context AI in Business · Aug 24, 2026 ### AI Saves a Day a Week. The Coordination Tax Collects It. BCG's fourth AI at Work survey found 42% of regular frontline AI users save at least a full workday every week, and that two-thirds get little or no guidance on what to do with it. The usual reading is that leaders forgot to give direction. The better reading is that the hours were already spoken for. AI compresses the work; it doesn't touch the work about the work.