Most organizations don’t lose for lack of talent.
They lose because their strategy no longer fits the world in which they’re operating.
AI acceleration, federal budget shifts, uncertain supply chains, and compressed decision cycles expose weak strategy faster than ever. Execution can't compensate for unclear or outdated choices.
Why this moment matters
Many CEOs sense the risk before they can name it.
- Priorities keep shifting.
- Teams stay busy, but momentum is uneven.
- Plans exist, yet confidence feels fragile.
- External changes force reactions instead of choices.
This is not a failure of effort or intelligence.
It is a failure of strategy to keep pace with reality.
In today’s environment, ambiguity is no longer neutral. It compounds.
Winners and losers are already emerging
Winners
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Make fewer, clearer choices
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Align leadership around logic, not consensus
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Invest in capabilities deliberately
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Adapt without constant reorganization
Losers
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Confuse planning with strategy
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Chase too many priorities
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Respond to pressure instead of shaping it
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Discover problems after execution fails
The difference is not ambition.
It is the quality and coherence of strategic decisions.
What winning requires now
Winning today is not about predicting the future.
It requires:
- A clear, unsentimental understanding of your capabilities and market
- Making explicit, hard choices
- Testing assumptions before they fail
- Aligning leaders around a clear logic
- Building advantage while reducing exposure to surprise
Strategy is not a document or an offsite.
It is a set of decisions that must hold up under pressure.
Haas Strategy Solutions exists to support this decision making.
How I work with CEOs
I work with CEOs and leadership teams through a disciplined progression:
Sprint clarifies whether Build is warranted.
Build is where most client engage.
System sustains the work complexity demands .
We offer three levels of service:
Sprint:
A focused checkpoint to determine whether you have a real strategy problem and whether it needs to be addressed now.
Build:
The core work. Designing a strategy that creates competitive advantage, aligns leadership, and holds up in a volatile environment.
System:
Ongoing stewardship for organizations that need strategy to remain a living capability as conditions change.
About Mark Haas
I am an independent strategy advisor to CEOs and boards.
For more than three decades, I have helped leadership teams navigate growth, disruption, transition, and risk by making strategy explicit and decision-ready.
I don’t sell frameworks or certainty.
I bring judgment, clarity, and discipline to moments where the cost of getting strategy wrong is high
More about my perspective and my professional journey.
Let’s talk
If you’re concerned that your strategy may not hold up in the environment ahead, we should talk.
Not to sell a package.
To determine whether serious strategy work is needed, and whether it makes sense to do it together.