One reason for this is that businesses, all too often, fail to carry the strategic process beyond the planning stage. In essence the moment they think they have a plan and make a decision, they stop applying the strategic process and lock themselves into a narrow or restrictive objective. They fail to continue gathering intelligence, key portions of the plan are delegated or assumed to be complete, and they adopt an invalid assumption that the world and their surroundings will stay put while they make their move. Another common cause of strategic meltdown is that many businesses rely too heavily on outsiders to provide the strategic component in their decision making. This can be the most disastrous mistake of all.
Strategy is a leadership quality.
It must be integral to your management team. It must be your skill, not some outside expert's. If you really want to succeed, you must master the strategic process yourself, and continuously apply it to the management of your business. As a note, this is our plan, which is part of our firm's marketing strategy, but not the strategy itself. The reason it is not a strategy is because it is a paper, a thing, not a process.