Article by Jedd Harris, Chief Strategy Officer at Sourcefin
You’re concerned. You’ve just had your first strategy review session, and you’ve missed the mark.
You’re confused. You and your team have collaborated to clearly define your strategy. You’ve trained everyone on your implementation framework of choice – be it Management by Objectives (MBO), the Balanced Scorecard, or OKRs. You’ve created a positive buzz, and the culture seems ready to embrace the way forward.
What could have gone wrong?
As you reflect, you remember the fires that had to be put out. The urgent client issue, the product glitch, the cash flow that teetered on the edge of the red – they all forced you to shift focus, albeit reluctantly but seemingly without much of a choice.
You recap your strategic priorities and realise that while the intentions were strong, they got deprioritised. You’re now grappling with a dilemma faced by millions of founders:
How can you commit to future goals when current concerns demand your full attention?
The good news: you’re not alone. Strategic drift is common, and the best founders aren’t the ones who never drift – they’re the ones who know how to realise drift is happening and reset quickly. This article will walk you through why drift happens, how to spot it early, and what practical tactics you can put in place to stay on track.
Why start-ups drift off strategy
Drifting from strategy is almost a rite of passage in early-stage companies. There are three core reasons this happens:
- You’re operating in three planes at once. In any given day, a start-up leader has to operate at the strategic (where are we going?), operational (how are we working?), and tactical (what are we doing right now?) levels. When tactical fires burn hot, strategic direction often cools on the back burner.
- The team is small and stretched. Everyone’s wearing multiple hats, and firefighting becomes the norm. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, not the strategic priority.
- You don’t have systems to bring strategy back into view. Without habits or rituals to review your direction, strategy becomes something you “set once,” not something you live.
The power of zooming out – the Slack story
Let’s use an example from the real world: Slack. Before it became a communication giant, Slack was originally an internal tool built during the development of a failed online game called Glitch. The founders had a broader vision but were constantly pulled into fixing bugs and shipping features for a game that wasn’t gaining traction. Eventually, they zoomed out, realised the communication tool was their real asset, and pivoted the business entirely. They drifted, yes – but they recalibrated fast. Learn more here.
Refocus with the right prioritisation frameworks
Strategic prioritisation frameworks can feel like theory, but they are powerful when used practically. Here are some useful tools to regain focus when your team starts to drift.
The Eisenhower Matrix
This sorts tasks into four quadrants (urgent & important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, neither). Use this to spot where you’re being reactive vs proactive. Firefighting lives in “urgent & important.” Strategy lives in “important but not urgent.”
This 2×2 Eisenhower Matrix helps start-up teams categorise tasks by urgency and importance. Use it to decide what to do now, what to schedule, what to delegate, and what to drop – ensuring strategic priorities don’t get lost in the chaos of the day-to-day.
RICE or ICE Prioritisation Frameworks
These help teams decide where to focus resources. RICE stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. ICE is Impact, Confidence, Ease. Both frameworks force teams to slow down and assess whether that urgent issue is worth the pivot.
The higher the score, the more important it is, relative to the other tasks. Prepare for debate, as not everyone may agree with the prioritisation score. This is the point, as healthy debate leads to healthy alignment.
The RICE framework helps start-ups prioritise initiatives by scoring them on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. This clear formula (Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort) enables better decision-making under pressure and ensures resources are focused.
Impact vs. Effort Matrix
Great for when your backlog is long and capacity is short. Map your strategic projects and decide which high-impact, low-effort ones you can keep alive even during chaotic periods.
This 2×2 Impact vs Ease Matrix helps start-up teams prioritise tasks and initiatives by comparing their strategic value (impact) against the effort required (ease). It categorises actions into four zones – Quick Wins, Big Bets, Major Projects, and Money Pits
Each of these tools is simple to apply and great for recalibrating focus during your weekly or monthly reviews. My advice: don’t get too scientific when using them. Trust your gut – the sum of your experiences.
Expect the unexpected
Let’s be honest – nothing in a start-up goes according to plan. Your strategy must be resilient and adaptable. It’s not a fixed route, but a flexible compass.
New opportunities will come knocking. So will unexpected disruptions. A well-designed strategy doesn’t ignore this – it builds in flexibility. It includes buffer room for experiments, room to pivot when a better opportunity emerges, and contingency plans for critical risks.
At the same time, you need a clear view of what not to compromise. Know your core strengths. Know your “non-negotiables.” Strategy should help you make better trade-offs when chaos arises. A strong strategic core ensures you shift when needed, without drifting aimlessly.
Get the right people on the bus
In Good to Great, Jim Collins writes: “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” He emphasises getting the right people on the bus, and in the right seats, before you even decide where the bus is going.
Steven Bartlett takes it further: “The most important role of a start-up founder is to spend time hiring the right people.” He’s right. In the early days, your first 10 hires shape everything – your strategy, your success, your culture.
Hire people who can operate in all three dimensions: strategic, operational, and tactical. They must be comfortable zooming out and thinking long-term, but also capable of executing in the mess of the now.
These early team members will be your culture cultivators and disseminators. They model how to prioritise, how to handle pressure, and how to keep strategy alive. If they default to firefighting with no regard for the long game, so will the rest of your business.
Track strategy like you track sales
Don’t wait until your quarterly review to find out you’ve drifted. Build early warning systems that alert you when you’re off course.
- Use dashboards that track progress on key results (OKRs), objectives (MBO), or strategic KPIs (Balanced Scorecard) daily or weekly.
- Implement a short weekly strategy check-in where each team lead shares updates tied directly to strategic priorities.
- Automate notifications or reminders to track key inputs (not just outputs) linked to your goals. For example, if customer onboarding is strategic, track weekly onboarding volume and customer satisfaction at onboarding.
When drift is visible, it becomes fixable.
Culture: the glue that holds strategy together
Culture is your strategy’s biggest multiplier. A strong culture doesn’t just celebrate your values – it reinforces strategic focus in day-to-day work.
Let’s say you’ve embedded values like ownership and focus. When distractions pop up, your team asks: “Is this aligned with our goal?” You don’t need to constantly remind them to stay on track – your culture does it for you.
A values-driven culture also ensures your team stays resilient. When priorities shift or challenges arise, they lean into shared behaviours that support the mission. This is the ultimate strategy insurance policy.
Remember, you’re not the first and not the last to face strategy drift
Missing the mark on your first strategy review is not failure. It’s feedback.
Every great company has drifted. The difference is that the best ones course-correct quickly, adjust their systems, and build a culture that keeps strategy in view even when the day-to-day gets messy.
If you’ve set your strategy, picked your framework, and cultivated the right culture, you’re already ahead. Now it’s about staying on track with tools, systems, and people who keep your vision alive.
About the author: Jedd Harris
Jedd Harris is the Chief Strategy Officer at Sourcefin, a South African fintech. Jedd has defined Sourcefin’s evolving strategy from 2021, when there were just five employees. To date, Sourcefin has deployed more than R2 billion to SMMEs and grown to 50 employees, all while continuously improving its core products (purchase order funding and invoice discounting). Sourcefin’s purpose is to enable the forgotten South African SMME to deliver on their promise and grow.
To apply for Sourcefin’s quick and easy alternative, impact funding, visit: https://www.sourcefin.co.za/funding-application/.