Most leaders I speak to agree: setting the vision is easy, making it real is hard. And the data backs this up:
- Bain’s global research shows only 12% of business transformations deliver on their original ambition.
- PMI’s 2025 Pulse of the Profession found only 18% of organisations demonstrate strong business acumen—the ones that do are significantly more likely to hit strategic goals.
- McKinsey reports just 1 in 5 organisations rate their strategic capabilities as “high.”
For agencies, the IPA has shown that those with effectiveness roadmaps outperform peers commercially, proving that process, measurement and discipline make a difference.
So what’s really stopping plans becoming outcomes? In my work with agency leaders, three blockers surface again and again:
- People – priorities unclear, or talent stretched in the wrong places.
- Systems – ways of working slowing execution instead of enabling it.
- Culture – not fully aligned to growth ambitions.
That’s why I focus on Strategy Activation—bridging the gap between the plan on the page and results in practice. Through diagnostics, consulting, masterclasses and toolkits, I help agencies clear these blockers and ensure plans translate into growth.
👉 Curious which of the three might be holding back your agency? I’d love to share my Activation Readiness Scan. Drop me a message on hello@joannaanthony.com to get the link.
I work with creative agencies and inhouse Creative Ops teams translate strategy into systems, behaviours, and results. As a client service and change specialist with 30+ years’ experience inside agencies, I am skilled at ‘making it happen’.