In fast-growing, project-based businesses, it’s not uncommon for leadership to set a clear direction, only to watch delivery teams struggle to bring it to life. As strategy travels across departments, it blurs. Priorities compete. Progress slows. And teams end up working hard without moving the business forward.
This isn’t a new problem. In 2016, research found that 67% of well-formulated strategies failed due to poor execution. A 10-year study on executive leadership revealed why: 61% of senior leaders felt unprepared for the strategic challenges of their roles, thereby contributing to failure rates as high as 60% within the first 18 months.
We’ve seen this firsthand across infrastructure, construction, and energy. The issue is the lack of a system that connects strategy to day-to-day work.
That’s where PMOs come in. Done well, they don’t just track delivery. They close execution gaps by creating the structure, rhythm, and visibility teams need to deliver on strategic goals.
In this article, we unpack the common reasons execution breaks down and how a well-structured PMO helps fix them.
1. Strategy is set but not shared
While leadership may be aligned on strategic priorities, frontline teams often optimise for delivery without visibility into the broader intent. A project positioned as a strategic entry into a new sector risks being treated as a standalone job if that context is not shared.
Consider a project in the defence sector. The C-suite may view it as a long-term foothold, but if delivery teams approach it as a standard build, opportunities to develop sector expertise, build relationships, or create repeatable capability are missed.
In businesses with high turnover, varied project scopes, and multi-market operations, strategy is often interpreted through different lenses: engineering in technical terms, procurement in process, finance in cost. Without a system to translate strategic intent into function-specific objectives, alignment deteriorates.
This is where a well-structured PMO creates value. By cascading strategy into measurable goals and enabling systems for delivery, it ensures vision becomes action—at every level of the organisation.
2. Projects are not strategically resourced
Another common breakdown is resourcing without context.
Too often, resources are allocated to get a project done, without considering how that project fits into the business’s long-term positioning. Teams might bypass internal support functions to move faster. Or they might miss strategic requirements—like using offshore support or trialling a new delivery method—because they weren’t briefed on the “why” behind the work.
Worse, projects are sometimes treated as isolated wins, rather than strategic platforms for future growth. This is how firms fail to build repeatable capability in new sectors.
PMOs create the connective tissue between strategy and delivery. They ensure resource decisions reflect broader priorities, instead of only immediate scope. That includes sequencing the right capabilities, enforcing strategic constraints, and keeping the long view in focus.
3. Execution lacks rhythm and feedback loops
Even when strategy is shared and projects are resourced correctly, most businesses fall short on review and response.
Most organisations track delivery. Few create space to learn from it.
Milestones get met. Reports are filed. But lessons aren’t embedded. Strategy is reviewed once a year, even when delivery signals suggest it needs to shift sooner.
Without a rhythm of review, feedback loops break down. Businesses keep executing on a plan that no longer fits.
Although teams may start aligned, that alignment could drift over time. Regulatory shifts, process changes, and new tools emerge, but without structured re-engagement, key stakeholders begin pulling in different directions.
We’ve seen compliance requirements change mid-year. But without clear communication from HR or finance, project teams continue operating on outdated assumptions.
This is where a structured cadence matters. PMOs build cycles that don’t just report progress. They check, test, and adapt it.
We call it PDCI: Plan, Do, Check, Improve. It’s a continuous improvement loop that brings strategic and operational feedback into alignment. The goal is not only to hit targets, but also to adjust course early—before a three-year plan fails in its second year.
4. No clarity on who decides what
Strategy often stalls when decision rights aren’t clearly defined.
In many project-based businesses, authority sits in grey zones. A project manager might assume they can approve a supplier change, only to find it affects commercial terms or triggers finance review. Meanwhile, decisions requiring CEO input stall because leadership lacks the context to move quickly.
This ambiguity slows delivery and erodes trust. Even worse, it could lead to isolated decisions made without visibility of broader impacts.
PMOs define the decision-making architecture. They establish clear reporting lines, governance structures, and escalation paths, ensuring the right people make the right decisions, with the right information, at the right time.
What PMOs Actually Deliver
When done well, PMOs aren’t just administrative functions. They are the system that connects strategy to delivery and ensures it holds under pressure.
Here’s how:
- Process: PMOs help translate strategy into something teams can act on. They break down high-level goals into clear, measurable objectives for each function and project, and put the systems in place to deliver them consistently.
With the right process, execution becomes structured, repeatable, and less dependent on reactive problem-solving.
- Governance: PMOs establish the frameworks and forums that keep priorities visible, decisions timely, and execution aligned. They also manage the interfaces between functions, ensuring that handoffs between engineering, procurement, finance, and delivery don’t become points of friction.
When timelines, data, or objectives diverge, the PMO reconnects the system and restores momentum.
- Visibility: PMOs provide the visibility needed to steer execution at scale. Through simple, reliable metrics, they make progress, risks, and outcomes transparent—not for tracking’s sake, but to support timely decisions and shared problem-solving.
When performance is visible, leaders can act early, allocate resources better, and keep strategy on course.
The most effective PMOs operate in what we call a clean environment, where processes are clear, feedback is normalised, and performance issues surface before they escalate. It’s this operational discipline that gives strategy the conditions to succeed.
Closing
When strategy stalls, the instinct is often to push harder. But effort alone doesn’t fix structural gaps.
Execution fails from unclear priorities, scattered resourcing, broken feedback loops, and ambiguous decision rights.
That’s where a modern PMO comes in. Not to manage projects, but to make strategy executable. To turn direction into action, and action into results.
At Shivendra & Co, we work with growing businesses to close this gap, building PMOs that connect vision to delivery, and strategy to sustained performance.
If that’s where you’re headed, we’d be glad to help.
References
- Carucci, R. (2017, November 13). Executives fail to execute strategy because they’re too internally focused. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/11/executives-fail-to-execute-strategy-because-theyre-too-internally-focused