By Marc Sanderson

Every CEO eventually faces an uncomfortable reality: the strategy that once made sense is no longer delivering results. Revenue stalls. Margins shrink. Your team works harder, but the business isn’t moving forward.

The instinct? Push harder. More sales activity. More accountability. More operational discipline. Maybe even make changes to the team. Sometimes that’s the answer. But sometimes you’re executing a strategy that no longer makes sense.

In woodworking manufacturing where capital investments are significant, skilled labor is scarce and competitive pressures are evolving, knowing the difference is critical.

The question isn’t simply, “Why isn’t our strategy working?” It’s “What did we get wrong, and what are we willing to change?”

Here are five moves every CEO should consider when their business strategy stops delivering results.

1. Challenge the context before changing the course.

Has the world changed around us?

When a strategy fails, leadership teams typically revisit the plan. They adjust priorities, reset targets and push harder on execution. The better move is to revisit the assumptions behind the plan. Strategy is built on context. When the context changes, the strategy may no longer be valid.

Earlier this year at INNERGY, we revisited our competitive environment through the lens of artificial intelligence (AI). Using Porter’s Five Forces framework, we examined how AI was changing customers, competitors, suppliers and potential new entrants.

One question stood out: What happens when customers can use AI to do more themselves? A customer who once needed a complete software solution may now use AI to fill certain gaps. That changes our value proposition—and potentially what customers are willing to pay.

The same principle applies to woodworking manufacturers. Automation changes production economics. Overseas competition reshapes pricing expectations. Technology expands what customers can do internally. Labor constraints challenge existing business models.

A strategy that made sense yesterday may not make sense tomorrow. Strategic planning isn’t an annual event. It’s a continuous response to reality. If the world changes in January, don’t wait until October’s planning retreat to respond.

Change can arrive suddenly (like AI) or be a slow boil (like overseas competition). The magnitude and speed of the change should determine the response. Major contextual changes require faster actions and extensive strategic review. Minor changes still require attention, but the moves tend to be more tactical.

2. Confront your assumptions before committing to ambitions.

Did we get it wrong from the start?

Sometimes the market hasn’t changed. We simply misunderstood it. Perhaps we overestimated our competitive advantage, misunderstood customer needs or pursued a market where the economics were never in our favor.

Consider a woodworking firm serving the hospitality industry. About 75% of its business comes from large hotel projects—competing against overseas manufacturers. The remaining 25% comes from specialized, high-end boutique properties. The company is one of the last domestic fabricators serving this market.

That sounds like a competitive advantage. But is it?

In standardized hotel projects, the fabricator faces Asian manufacturers with significant structural cost advantages. In boutique properties, however, customization, engineering, responsiveness—and the advantages of proximity and shorter lead times—create opportunities to differentiate. The problem isn’t necessarily only that the market changed. It did. It manifested slowly over 20 years. The real issue is the company failed to recognize the slow boil and distinguish where it could create and capture value.

The strategic question isn’t how to work harder at winning the 75%. It’s whether the company should shift toward segments where its capabilities truly matter. That requires validating the opportunity, rethinking its customer mix, aligning operations and potentially walking away from unprofitable work.

It’s difficult. We become attached to the businesses we’ve built and the investments we’ve made. It can feel personal. But, holding on isn’t a strategy. You cannot grab the next trapeze bar without letting go of the first.

3. Get closer to customers before claiming to know them.

Do we truly understand the problems our customers are trying to solve?

One of the biggest strategic mistakes is assuming we understand customers better than we do. In woodworking, we often default to four dimensions of value: cost, quality, delivery, and service. Of course they matter. But they’re starting points, not a differentiated value proposition.

What problem is the customer actually trying to solve? And how can we solve it better than the alternatives?

A cabinet manufacturer may believe its competitive advantage is quality, while its dealer’s biggest frustration is unpredictable lead times. A commercial millwork customer may emphasize price but place greater value on engineering support that prevents expensive field problems.

Talk directly with customers. Conduct interviews and focus groups. Understand their operations, frustrations and unmet needs.

At INNERGY, we reinforce customer intimacy through education, engagement and a high-level of direct executive participation. We bring customers into our events and create opportunities for leaders throughout the organization to build relationships.

Customer intimacy must become part of the organization’s DNA—not simply a sales department responsibility. You cannot build a differentiated strategy around customers you don’t deeply understand.

4. Run the numbers instead of relying on your gut.

Do the numbers validate our growth strategy?

Experienced leaders often rely on intuition—and for good reason. But gut instinct is no substitute for good math. I’ve seen companies pursue ambitious growth plans without answering basic questions about market size, competitive share or the capacity needed to achieve their goals.

You don’t need a sophisticated financial model. Sometimes one spreadsheet is enough.

At INNERGY, we distilled our long-term ambition into 10 key variables. That exercise clarified what the business could become over the next five to seven years. The numbers made the opportunity tangible—and exposed the constraints.

Imagine a woodworking firm planning significant growth within a 100-mile radius. Before investing in equipment or facilities, the CEO needs to understand the addressable market, competitive landscape, current market share and share required to reach the target. What if the local market simply isn’t large enough? That’s a strategic problem—not an execution problem.

I like using simple two-dimensional market maps to visualize segments, market potential, current position and growth opportunities. They reveal where to pursue new customers, cross-sell products or capture additional share. They often become our visual game board for growth.

The goal isn’t more spreadsheets. It’s finding simplicity on the other side of complexity. The numbers don’t need to be perfect. They need to be credible enough to expose assumptions, identify constraints and guide decisions.

They also make an ambitious strategy believable. People commit more readily when they can see a clear path to the goal. The biggest mistake isn’t using imperfect numbers. It’s refusing to use them at all.

5. Turn strategic choices into sustainable success.

Are we capturing the value we create—and aligning the organization to deliver it?

Sometimes the strategy is sound, customers see the value and the market opportunity exists. Yet the economics still don’t work.

Consider a woodworking manufacturer investing significant estimating time into detailed, room-by-room quotations. Customers appreciate the transparency. But it also allows them to cherry-pick components and award the remaining work elsewhere. The company creates value but weakens its ability to capture it.

Before resetting the strategy, test how you package, price and deliver that value. Experiment with bid formats, bundled offerings and pricing. Measure win rates, margins and customer response. Sometimes the problem isn’t the strategy. It’s how you monetize the value proposition.

Even the right value proposition fails without organizational alignment. If customization is your competitive advantage but production is optimized for standardized runs, there’s a disconnect.

At Wilkie Sanderson, we focused on one operational measure: the percentage of work released by the first of the month. It aligned the organization around throughput and on-time delivery.

Translate strategic choices into measurable behaviors. Context drives strategy. Strategy drives structure. Structure drives behavior. And behavior determines results.

Context → Strategy → Structure → Behavior → Results

The Toughest Call: Knowing When to Let Go

Not every missed target requires a new strategy. Sometimes better execution, clearer priorities or a sharper value proposition will get you back on track. But you can’t execute your way out of a fundamentally flawed strategy.

As CEOs, we’re expected to have conviction. We set direction, make investments and ask people to follow us. Admitting we got it wrong takes courage. When your strategy stops working, challenge the context. Confront your assumptions. Get closer to customers. Run the numbers. Align your organization to create—and capture—value.

Above all, be willing to change.

The numbers provide a mirror. They may not show you what you want to see, but they’ll reveal what you need to confront. The objective isn’t to prove your original strategy was right. It’s to build a business that can keep winning when the world changes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Strategy

1. How do you know when a business strategy isn’t working?

A business strategy may need reassessment when revenue stalls, margins decline, growth targets are consistently missed or increased effort fails to produce better results.

The key is distinguishing poor execution from a flawed strategy. Start by examining whether the market, customer needs or competitive environment has changed—or whether your original assumptions were wrong. If the economics no longer support your business model, working harder won’t solve the underlying problem.

2. When should a CEO change strategy versus improve execution?

A CEO should focus on execution when the market opportunity remains attractive, customers value the offering, and the business model is economically sound—but organizational performance falls short.

A strategic change may be necessary when customer needs shift, competitive advantages erode, or the market cannot support profitable growth.

The distinction is critical: Execution problems require better performance. Strategic problems require different choices. Before changing direction, validate the assumptions, examine the numbers and determine whether the organization is aligned to deliver the strategy.

3. How can woodworking manufacturers improve their competitive advantage?

Woodworking manufacturers can strengthen their competitive advantage by identifying customer segments where their capabilities create meaningful differentiation.

Rather than competing solely on price, manufacturers should evaluate opportunities in customization, engineering expertise, delivery reliability, customer service and specialized markets.

or example, a domestic manufacturer competing against lower-cost overseas suppliers on standardized hotel projects may find greater opportunity in high-end boutique hospitality, where customization and responsiveness carry greater value.

The goal isn’t to compete everywhere. It’s to compete where your capabilities matter most—and where you can capture the value you create.

4. What financial metrics should CEOs use to validate a growth strategy?

CEOs should evaluate a focused set of financial and operational metrics that connect market opportunity to profitable growth.

Key measures include:
·       Total addressable market (TAM): Is the market large enough to support our growth ambitions?
·       Market share: What percentage of the available market must we capture to reach our targets?
·       Revenue growth: Are we gaining traction in our chosen customer segments?
·       Gross margin: Are we capturing sufficient value from the products and services we deliver?
·       Production capacity and throughput: Can our operations support the planned growth?
·       Win rates and profitability by segment: Are we pursuing the right customers and projects?

A simple spreadsheet connecting these variables can reveal whether growth targets are achievable before committing significant capital or resources. The numbers don’t need to be perfect. They need to be credible enough to expose assumptions, identify constraints and guide better decisions.

By: Marc Sanderson

 

Transparency is one of the few competitive advantages available to every leader. It doesn’t require venture capital, breakthrough technology or a patent—yet remarkably few companies consistently practice it.

 

We all value transparency when we receive it. We expect it from our leaders, our colleagues and the companies we buy from. But valuing transparency and practicing it—especially when it’s uncomfortable—are two very different things.

 

In business, transparency feels risky because it exposes imperfection. Yet, that’s precisely when it matters most. At INNERGY, transparency isn’t just something we try to do. It’s one of our core values. We expect every employee to pursue it—with one another and with our customers. We’ve learned that transparency doesn’t weaken relationships; it strengthens them by reducing uncertainty, building trust and accelerating learning.

 

Over time, I’ve come to think about transparency through three distinct forms of trust:

 

1. Operational Trust: People believe you’ll tell them what’s happening.

2. Relational Trust: People believe it’s safe to tell you what’s happening.

3. Strategic Trust: People understand why decisions are being made.

 

Those three forms of trust reinforce one another and become a lasting competitive advantage. Here’s how they play out practically:

 

1. Build Operational Trust: Show the bruised side of the apple.

 

Every company celebrates wins. Few celebrate bruises. Yet bruises are where learning happens. Our team often talks about showing the “bruised side of the apple.” If leaders only share victories, people quickly learn that mistakes aren’t acceptable. Problems get hidden instead of solved.

 

I intentionally admit my own mistakes, big and small, because every time a leader goes first, someone else gains permission to speak up. Research by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson found that the best-performing teams weren’t making fewer mistakes, they were reporting them more openly. Their advantage wasn’t perfection. It was faster learning: fail fast, fix fast.

 

The bruises aren’t the problem. Hiding them is.

 

2. Build Relational Trust: Go first with vulnerability.

 

Transparency requires vulnerability, and someone has to take the first step. Make it you.

 

Many people don’t struggle with transparency because of the current experience, they struggle because of their previous one. They’ve worked in organizations where admitting mistakes meant embarrassment, blame or even termination. They bring that baggage with them.

 

I’ve learned that building a transparent culture isn’t simply telling people it’s safe. It’s proving it over and over again. I seek to model it consistently, in all aspects of my life. I protect people when they tell difficult truths. I don’t punish honesty (bad news doesn’t get better with age). Over time, people believe what they experience instead of what they hear.

 

When leaders go first, innovation follows because people feel safe enough to keep swinging.

 

3. Build Strategic Trust: Make your motives known.

 

People rarely question decisions as much as they question intentions. Every decision tells a story. If you don’t explain the “why,” people will often write their own version.

 

I recently spent an hour with a customer who was convinced we intended to raise prices simply because we could. He was new to our company through an acquisition and didn’t yet understand who we are. I explained that we can demonstrate that an average customer using our platform operates with about 4.5 fewer employees than similar businesses in the industry.

 

Share the Journey (Not Just the Victory)

 

Relational trust is the hardest to build and sustain. People can handle slow progress. They struggle with hidden progress. Transparency isn’t simply announcing the breakthrough. It’s about being open about the process and what it takes to improve.

 

I recently spent significant time in Australia meeting with customers because of technical support challenges. Those conversations led us to identify an AI solution that will dramatically improve support with the focus on achieving RAVING FANS. It would have been easy to announce the exciting part and stop there.

 

Instead, we also need to explain the harder truth. Deploying AI is only one step. Fully solving the problem requires planning, implementation, change management—and time. Transparency sometimes means asking customers or colleagues for patience while you earn back their confidence.

 

The Trust Equation

 

We experienced this firsthand during an unexpected company-wide outage. What stood out wasn’t the outage—it was our culture. Before anyone assigned responsibilities, employees instinctively ran toward the problem. One person launched a communication channel, another rerouted our support line, many others contacted customers, and we published updates every ten minutes.

 

We didn’t need a detailed disaster recovery playbook. We had a shared commitment to creating RAVING FANS, and everyone knew that taking care of customers came before protecting appearances.

 

During our planned product release two business days later, we addressed the outage head-on. Customers thanked us—for communicating openly, acting quickly and demonstrating that we cared. They knew we were running to the problem and respected our transparency.

 

That experience reinforced an important lesson: Transparency isn’t valuable because it makes people feel better. It’s valuable because it reduces uncertainty. And when uncertainty declines, trust grows. Every transparent conversation is another deposit into the trust account.

 

Trust behaves like compound interest. Every transparent conversation adds a small amount. Every mistake that’s hidden withdraws a much larger amount. Over time, organizations—and leaders—with high trust move faster because they spend less time overcoming skepticism.

 

Transparency isn’t always comfortable. It isn’t always convenient. But it’s always worth it because it is a competitive advantage.

 

Marc Sanderson is the CEO of INNERGY and former President/Owner of Wilkie Sanderson. He began in the millwork industry 20 years ago with a small cabinet shop and built it into one of the most profitable operations in the country. A Harvard MBA and 2024 Wood Industry Market Leader, Marc is known for transforming complexity into clarity through data-driven strategy and culture first leadership. Equal parts analytical operator and motivator, he’s just as comfortable refining strategy as he is rallying a room around a shared vision.

By: Marc Sanderson

 

In most companies, problems don’t announce themselves—they accumulate. Quietly at first, then all at once. By the time they reach the executive team, they’re no longer operational hiccups; they’re strategic risks.

 

The difference between high-performing leaders and the rest isn’t the absence of problems. It’s how quickly — and how directly — they move toward them.

 

At INNERGY, we use a simple phrase: run to the problem. It’s not a slogan; it’s a system of behavior. It is so important to our success that we named it as one of our core values — an expectation to be lived out by all members of our team.

 

It’s a value that I learned early in my construction career. As an architectural woodworker, by definition, we showed up last on site. Thus, we inherited all sorts of problems that we need to solve —with no extra time to do it. We had to anticipate issues, move fast and consider how to solve problems that may arise so we could make it right.

 

Why run?

Walking won’t cut it. With problems, speed is the difference between control and consequence:

 

• Every problem has a clock on it.
  Early on, it’s small. Contained. Fixable with relatively little disruption. Wait too long, and it spreads—across teams, into customers, into your brand.
• Problems don’t fix themselves.
  They compound. There’s a quiet belief in many organizations that if we just keep moving, things will sort themselves out. They don’t. When we run to the problem early, we’re not just fixing an issue—we’re preventing a pattern.
• It builds trust—faster than success does.
  What people remember is how you show up during challenges. Do you engage early? Do you take ownership? Do you communicate honestly, even without all the answers? Trust isn’t built by avoiding problems. It’s built by how you confront them.
• It forces clarity.
  Waiting for clarity may feel responsible. But more often than not, it’s just delay in disguise. Clarity rarely comes before action.

How to Run

It’s easy to say run to the problem, but harder in practice. Here’s what we find are the keys to success:

 

STEP 1: Own it Before Overanalyzing.
It means you own it before it’s obvious and move before you’re ready. You will be stepping off into ambiguity, discomfort and often issues that aren’t entirely your fault. The moment something feels off, act. Call the customer before you have all the answers. Address the issue before it’s fully diagnosed. Waiting, hoping or working around it never works.

 

I think often about the Tylenol crisis. Johnson & Johnson didn’t wait for certainty—they recalled 31 million bottles to protect customers. They chose trust over perfection and it defined their brand for decades. I’ve seen the opposite too — when we delay engaging because we don’t feel “ready,” the problem only grows.

 

I don’t hesitate. I’ll change my schedule and travel far if needed to own the issue and start the conversation. The first conversation is rarely perfect and sometimes painful — but it builds trust and gains grace while you fix it.

 

STEP 2: Push Past Symptoms to the Source

What shows up first rarely is the problem — it’s evidence of one. We see an outcome, not the cause — a customer complaint, a spike in tickets, a missed commitment. The instinct is to react to what’s visible. The discipline is to pause and ask: what’s actually driving this? What’s the root issue we need to solve?

 

We saw it in our support function — aging tickets, slow responses, frustrated customers. The quick answer was to push the team to move faster. When we stepped back, we realized we couldn’t even see the process clearly. We didn’t know where tickets were getting stuck or have the right metrics to track it.

 

You can’t fix what you can’t define. Getting to the root cause takes curiosity, time and the right data — not more data. Because if you can’t measure it, you can’t align on it. And if you’re not aligned, you’re guessing. The ultimate outcome of this step is a clear, strong problem definition.

 

STEP 3: Start Before the Plan is Perfect

Analytical by nature, I want to develop a complete roadmap to address the issue. But I know, complexity can kill progress. The key is identifying the next best step, create urgency and let clarity build as we go.

 

Years ago, when an internal survey showed a dip in satisfaction among our development team, we moved immediately:

 

• Tuesday: I saw the survey results in Minnesota.
• Thursday: I asked for follow-up feedback to better understand what went wrong.
• Friday: We all were in a room in Poland aligning on the issue and next steps.

We didn’t have the full solution. But we had momentum.

 

In another case, I watched an INNERGY leader literally get on a plane to meet with a customer and the team. No long pre-read. No extended planning cycle. Just a decision to engage directly and not leave until there was clarity. That kind of urgency changes everything!

 

Short-term wins follow. Alignment follows. Energy follows.

 

STEP 4: Follow Through Relentlessly
Progress doesn’t have to be perfect—but it does have to be visible. Follow-through is what turns intent into trust. It’s how your team knows you mean what you say, and how customers decide whether to stay when things go wrong.

 

That starts with communication. Early, often and throughout—not just when it’s solved. Pair that with doing what you said you would do. Commitments matter and when plans change, you close the loop instead of going quiet.

It also requires staying close to the work. Audit as you go. Adjust in real time. Because in the end, people don’t remember the plan—they remember your words and deeds matched, and that builds trust.

 

Problems are opportunities and each time provide lessons that make you, your team and your organization better. At INNERGY, we name the big problems (Trainwreck Tuesday, Dev Disaster, Ticket Turbulence, Fatigue Friday). It reminds us that problems are solvable. The process works. Problems are not to be feared. They make us better and achieve RAVING FANS.

 

When Everyone Runs
As CEO, I don’t need to be the one running to every problem. But I do need to build a culture where someone always is. That means:

• Staying close to the voice of the customer
• Being clear on what “good” looks like
• Empowering the right people to step in—even if it’s outside their formal role

 

As we grow, the problems don’t go away. They get bigger. Faster. Less forgiving. So, we have to get better. Better at seeing early. Better at diagnosing clearly. Better at acting decisively. It takes discipline.

 

If there’s one thing I’d pass on to another leader, it’s this:

 

Don’t wait for clarity. Run to the problem—and let clarity catch up.

 

Marc Sanderson is the CEO of INNERGY and former President/Owner of Wilkie Sanderson. He began in the millwork industry 20 years ago with a small cabinet shop and built it into one of the most profitable operations in the country. A Harvard MBA and 2024 Wood Industry Market Leader, Marc is known for transforming complexity into clarity through data-driven strategy and culture first leadership. Equal parts analytical operator and motivator, he’s just as comfortable refining strategy as he is rallying a room around a shared vision.