Thanks for the comment Ivan! Whilst not a proper scientific study (and how fascinating would that be?) I find little to differentiate the types of answers I get from people inside the business, regardless or size or age.

I have had the privilege of working with newly minted startups and decades old businesses, and I do often see the impact of their size. A small startup tends to worry less about formal strategy, trusting in the easier communication of a small group. Large businesses tend to waste much more money on strategy (large executive teams, cascading information, expensive strategy summits, laborious budgeting processes and ‘analysis paralysis’). The larger companies would no doubt be better served by jettisoning the waste of ineffective strategic planning.

However, clear strategic thinking is the best way I know to be more effective at execution — and startups need to move fast to outrun burn rate.

So: the prevalence of a lack of strategy seems to me to be equivalent between large, old businesses and small, new ones. The symptoms tend to be very different, but the benefit of establishing and following a clear plan will be equally important regardless of size.

At its heart, that’s all a good strategy is: the necessary steps to achieve a goal.