If you read the introductory post in this series, you’ll know that SUCCESS begins with the discipline that holds everything else together. Here, we start with S — Strategy & Governance: the foundation of predictable, aligned commercial growth.
The discipline that determines whether your organisation will actually grow — or simply talk about it.
The “S” in SUCCESS — Strategy & Governance — is the anchor point that prevents Account-Based Growth (ABG) from collapsing under its own enthusiasm. Without it, even the smartest growth initiative becomes theatre: good slides, good energy, no sustained results.
This blog explores what Strategy & Governance actually means, why most organisations get it wrong, and how the Oak GROWTH Framework turns governance into a competitive advantage rather than a bureaucratic brake.
The Silent Killer of Growth: Missing Governance
In most B2B organisations, strategy is not the problem. Execution discipline is.
You see the symptoms everywhere:
- Strategy is articulated but not owned.
- Sales, Marketing and Delivery each operate on their own agenda.
- Decisions are slow, political, or based on assumptions rather than evidence.
- Campaigns outpace capability.
- ABM enthusiasm dies at the first sign of organisational friction.
Put simply:
When governance fails, growth fails.
When governance is absent, momentum collapses.
Organisations often mistake activity for progress. They run initiatives, campaigns, meetings, and reviews — but without structure, cadence and accountability, none of it compounds into commercial momentum.
Governance is not a nice-to-have.
It is the single biggest predictor of whether growth becomes a reality or remains a slide-deck aspiration.
Strategy & Governance: The Oak Consult Definition
Most leaders hear “governance” and think of administration, oversight, or compliance. But in the SUCCESS Framework, governance is something entirely different:
Governance is the engine of momentum – It links board ambition to customer truth.
It is not bureaucracy, not slowing things down nor a corporate process for the sake of it.
Governance is what turns strategy into:
- decisions
- direction
- accountability
- cadence
- clarity
- movement
When governance works properly, teams stop guessing, stop duplicating, and stop arguing. Instead, they operate from a single truth and a shared rhythm.
Without governance, strategy is noise.
With governance, strategy becomes alignment, action and acceleration.
The GROWTH Framework — The Operating System of Governance
In the SUCCESS Framework, Strategy & Governance is operationalised through the Oak GROWTH Framework, a structured discipline that ensures ABG is steered, measured and lived consistently. GROWTH contains six components — each one essential to turning strategy into a leadership rhythm:
G — Governance
This is the leadership layer that sets direction and holds the system together.
- One C-suite sponsor owns Account Based Growth.
- Monthly strategic steering sessions, not ad hoc conversations.
- Clear growth objectives agreed at board level.
- Growth is not “a marketing thing”; it is a business system.
Without governance, organisations drift. With it, they align.
R — Responsibility
Growth becomes real when responsibility becomes shared.
- Named owners across Sales, Marketing, Delivery.
- Weekly cross-functional rhythm.
- Decisions flow from truth, not hierarchy.
- Everyone knows who is accountable for what.
This stops the endlessly repeated pattern of:
“Marketing thought Sales had it… Sales thought Product had it… Delivery thought it wasn’t theirs…”
O — Opportunities
Where will growth actually come from?
- Priority accounts mapped using the Fit × Value Matrix.
- Clear segmentation and targeting.
- Data-led identification of short-term and long-term opportunity pools.
Without clarity on opportunities, effort gets diluted.
With clarity, every hour spent becomes an investment, not a distraction.
W — Weaknesses
This is where organisations must be honest with themselves.
- Internal capability gaps.
- Process bottlenecks.
- Lack of alignment.
- Cultural blockers.
Weaknesses are not criticisms — they are the truth that protects growth from self-sabotage.
T — Threats
Every strategy must operate with an external lens.
- Competitor movements.
- Market pressure.
- Economic headwinds.
- Regulatory or technological disruption.
Threats don’t frighten great organisations — they focus them.
H — Heatmap
This is where everything becomes real.
- The living dashboard that shows what needs attention now.
- Red = immediate intervention
- Amber = watch closely
- Green = on track
- Weekly updates feed into monthly steering sessions.
The discipline is simple:
Review → Decide → Assign.
When used properly, the Heatmap prevents drift and keeps the entire organisation aligned around what matters most.
Why Governance Accelerates Growth (It Doesn’t Slow It)
Many leaders fear that governance “adds meetings” or “slows delivery.”
In reality, the opposite is true.
Governance accelerates growth because it:
1. Removes ambiguity
Teams stop guessing and start acting.
2. Speeds up decisions
Clarity increases velocity.
Ambiguity slows it.
3. Replaces politics with evidence
When customer truth drives decisions, internal opinion loses its power.
4. Creates cross-functional coherence
Sales, Marketing and Delivery stop working in parallel and begin working in partnership.
5. Turns growth into a rhythm
Not a campaign, an initiative or a “best effort.” A system.
Good governance doesn’t slow you down; it removes the things that are slowing you down already.
Embedding Governance: The Three-Layer Architecture
Strategy & Governance needs structure. Without it, discipline dissolves.
The SUCCESS Framework defines three layers where governance must operate:
1. Board Level — Ambition to Reality
- ABG becomes a standing agenda item.
- Direction, KPIs, investment, and expected outcomes are set.
- Accountability is owned at the highest level.
Growth only works when the board cares about it consistently — not quarterly.
2. ABG / Growth Team — Weekly Cadence
- Sales, Marketing, Delivery, Finance, Data.
- Clear roles, clear responsibilities, clear rhythms.
- Actions feed into the Heatmap.
- Blockers removed quickly.
This team is the engine room.
3. Support Functions — The Enablers
- Finance ensures investment and ROI integrity.
- Data ensures truth, accuracy, and insight.
- People/HR ensures incentives, roles, and behaviour align.
When these functions align with Growth, momentum becomes easier to generate and sustain.
What Good Governance Looks Like in Practice
Leaders will know governance is working when:
- Meetings are shorter but more decisive.
- The organisation speaks with one voice.
- Customer truth is the basis for decisions.
- Risks are surfaced early and calmly.
- Reports become insights, not theatre.
- Growth becomes predictable rather than sporadic.
This is what most organisations miss:
Governance doesn’t constrain growth — it compounds it.
Leadership Reflection
Here’s the uncomfortable but essential question:
Do you have a growth strategy — or do you simply have growth slogans?
If there is:
- no cadence
- no ownership
- no governance rhythm
- no cross-functional alignment
- no Heatmap
- no board engagement
- no customer truth in decision-making
…then the strategy is not being led.
It is being hoped for.
Leaders don’t hope for growth. They govern it.
Closing: S is the Foundation
Strategy & Governance is the first letter of SUCCESS for a reason.
It is the foundation of everything that follows:
- U — Understanding & Unification
- C — Customer Segments
- C — Customer Spectacles
- E — Executable Plan
- S — Scale
- S — Sustain
Without Strategy & Governance, nothing else holds.
With it, the entire SUCCESS flywheel gains stability, momentum and direction. Next in the SUCCESS Series: Understanding & Unification
In Part 2, we explore U — Understanding & Unification: the discipline that turns strategy from a slide deck into a shared truth line that aligns your organisation around what’s really happening with your most important customers.