Achieving Strategic Focus:

Addressing Root Causes Rather Than Symptoms

We have all seen it before.  When organizations pursue too many objectives at once, the staff is stretched thin, teams juggle competing priorities, and results are diminished.  At Anavo Growth Partners, we believe strategic focus is critical to success.  While you can achieve focus by spreading out key priorities over multiple years, there is another way.  That is uncovering and addressing the root causes rather than surface symptoms.  This is one of the most underutilized strategic levers in business. 

I was reminded of this many years ago when I led a business unit at a company owned by KKR, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. As you can imagine, expectations were sky-high as the pace accelerated. The business’s growth had stagnated as new competitors chipped away at our market share. Eager to get to the bottom of it, I brought together the heads of each function and asked them to write out the issues they were facing. In the end, over 100 critical problems covered the walls of our conference room, and morale plummeted. We all felt overwhelmed by the sheer scale of what we were up against.

But then something powerful happened. We stepped back and looked for patterns. Beneath the list of problems, we discovered that a handful of root causes were responsible for nearly 80% of the issues. By zeroing in on those few priorities, we were able to clear a path for the rest to fall away. The shift was transformative.  At the end of 2 years, profits grew 68%, and the team enthusiastically pursued a clear strategy with confidence and clarity.

That experience wasn’t a one-off. It reflects a pattern we see time and again with our clients. By mapping the array challenges back to their core sources, we help leadership teams cut through complexity and channel their energy into what truly moves the needle. Strategic focus isn’t about doing less—it’s about doing what matters most.