In the first of a series of articles on defragging your strategy, April Strategy Co-founder Tim Westall examines the foundations of good strategy, starting with core purpose.

At April Strategy, we often confront what might be called the 'messy middle' of innovation - the space between what's known and what might be possible. It's a space of ambiguity, contradiction, and competing truths.

After years of supporting clients to accelerate execution, we've observed a consistent pattern: brilliant strategies fail not because the thinking was wrong, but because five critical elements weren't in place before execution began.