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Why Strategy Execution Is a Discipline, Not Magic – And How to Finally Close the Gap - Strategy Execution Practitioners Unfiltered

  • Writer: Ben Chamberlain
    Ben Chamberlain
  • Mar 29
  • 3 min read

The latest episode in the Strategy Execution Practitioners Unfiltered series just dropped!


In this series on the Strategy eXecution Unlocked podcast, Ben Chamberlain sits down with the founding members of The Strategy eXecution Forum—practitioners spanning diverse roles, functions, and industries—all united by a common mission: helping their organizations to effectively bridge the gap between strategy and execution.


In episode 4 of our Practitioners Unfiltered series, Ben Chamberlain hosts Albert Palomar an Executive Leader with over 20 years of deep experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Global PMO & Strategic Portfolio Director, and Council & Founding Member of the Strategy eXecution Forum.


Albert has built and led high-impact PMOs that create robust governance structures, align complex portfolios with company vision, balance priorities, identify risks and opportunities, and drive enterprise transformations with a strong business and strategic mindset.


Watch a short clip below and become a StrategyXF member to access the full episode.



Albert's central message?


Even the best-crafted strategies fail when organizations treat execution as something that “just happens” after the strategy is set. Execution is a muscle, a system, and a leadership discipline that must be intentionally built — it doesn’t happen by magic.


Key highlights from our unfiltered conversation:


🌟 Execution is given for granted at the top — Top executives often focus on crafting strong strategy, then assume the rest of the organization will simply make it happen. Albert explains why this mindset creates a massive gap between strategy formulation and actual business results, and why 60-70% of failures occur in execution, not in the strategy itself.


🌐 Roadmaps must be living tools, not wall decorations — Most strategic roadmaps fail because they’re treated as a one-off annual exercise. Albert shares how shifting to continuous planning, dynamic trade-offs, interdependency mapping, capability enablers, and regular governance forums turns roadmaps into powerful decision-making engines that drive real value realization.


🛠️ Strategy decomposition and true alignment — Breaking high-level strategy into pillars, drivers, metrics, and KPIs creates clarity, enables cross-functional collaboration, and ensures the right initiatives are funded. Albert emphasizes that misalignment is one of the biggest silent value killers — and how joint incentives and a “village” approach (involving strategy, operations, architecture, PMO, and more) are essential.


👻 Planned value vs. realized value — Organizations obsess over on-time/on-budget metrics but often ignore the real P&L impact. Albert dives into why value tracking is so difficult, how to tie initiatives directly to business model outcomes and specific P&L lines, and why we must treat value forecasting with the same rigor as cost forecasting — with continuous monitoring, scenario planning, and leading indicators.


🚀 The evolving role of the Strategy Execution Office — Governance done right becomes the conduit for value flow. Albert makes the case for enterprise functions (PMO, Strategy Execution Office, or Value Management Office) that forensically identify value leakage, drive alignment, facilitate trade-offs, and leverage real-time data and AI to support better decisions between short-, mid-, and long-term value.


If you’re a C-suite executive, PMO leader, strategy professional, portfolio manager, or anyone tired of watching ambitious strategies lose momentum in execution, this episode is packed with practical, battle-tested insights from the pharmaceutical industry that translate across sectors.


Strategy eXecution Unlocked - Practitioners Unfiltered _ Featuring Albert Palomar


Massive thanks to Albert for his candor, depth of experience, and passion for elevating Strategy Execution to a true C-suite imperative.


More unfiltered conversations with Strategy eXecution Forum founders coming soon! 🚀



The Strategy eXecution Forum

The Strategy eXecution Forum (StrategyXF) is an invite-only, no-fee professional community built by and for the practitioners who know firsthand how hard it is to close the persistent gap between strategy and results. We believe it takes a village to master strategy execution — which is why StrategyXF brings together senior leaders from across the enterprise: C-suite executives, Strategy & Operations leaders, Transformation Offices, Finance, HR, IT, PMO, Enterprise Risk, Change Management, Portfolio Management, Business Architecture, and more.


Together, members collaborate on real-world challenges, share battle-tested approaches, and shape the future of how organizations execute with discipline and impact. This isn't a passive network — it's a practitioner-led community where your experience adds real value, and where every discussion is designed to deliver practical ideas you can apply right away. If you're serious about elevating strategy execution as a mission-critical discipline, we invite you to apply to become a member and help us build something the profession has long needed.

 
 
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