Ideas for Leaders Turning Strategy Into Action.
Perspectives from Dr. David Etienne on strategy, financial management, leadership, organizational performance, and the realities of execution.
Practical thinking for leaders responsible for making decisions, managing complexity, and delivering results.
LATEST INSIGHTS
Thinking for the Decisions Leaders Face.
-
When The Tail Wags The Dog!
Dr. David Etienne, DBA, CPA, CA September 25, 2026 Almost every leadership textbook draws the arrow the same way: leadership style influences organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) — the discretionary, go-above-and-beyond stuff employees do that no job description requires. Transformational leaders get more of it. Autocratic leaders get less. The arrow points one direction. I suggest…
-
Why organizations default toward the wrong diagnosis
Dr. David Etienne, DBA, CPA, CA August 28, 2026 A company’s growth stalls. Leadership responds the way leadership almost always responds: sharpen the competitive positioning, push harder on pricing, retrain the sales team, launch a new marketing push. Eighteen months later, none of it worked, because the actual problem was never about how well the…
-
Your Business Plan’s Exit Strategy (if present) Only Covers One Kind of Exit
Dr. David Etienne, DBA, CPA, CA August 25, 2026 Go looking for “exit strategy” in the average business plan and you’ll usually find nothing at all. When it does show up, it means exactly one thing: how the founder eventually leaves — sell the company, hand it to family, take it public, wind it down….
-
The Strategy That Left the Boardroom Isn’t the Strategy That Reaches the Floor
Dr. David Etienne, DBA, CPA, CA Strategy Drift – It’s Not a Communication Problem. It’s a Translation Problem. Every leader has felt it: the strategy you announced with total clarity comes back to you three months later, from the front line, as something almost unrecognizable. The instinct is to blame communication — better slides, clearer…