By CPA Samwel Baraka Ochieng
Sometimes Growth Is Constrained Not by Strategy but By Culture
“I’m not going there to fit in. I am going there to see what they have stopped seeing. When everything feels comfortable, nothing is growing.” Those words stayed with me long after the call ended. I have known Valarie, (not her real name), since our college days. She is not someone who speaks for effect. What I heard was not ambition but conviction, a deep belief that real growth rarely comes from blending into established rhythms. It comes from examining them.
Valarie carries a quiet discipline: the willingness to question routines that no one revisits, to test assumptions that have quietly hardened into doctrine, and to interrogate practices defended only by a familiar phrase: “this is how we have always done it.” Her perspective reflects one uncomfortable truth about leadership and growth: organisations stagnate not because they lack effort, but because they grow too comfortable with what once worked. I’ve often seen this play out in boardrooms, where everyone nods politely but no one questions the assumptions that underpin their decisions.
Growth is seldom accidental. It emanates from deliberate choices and often begins by introducing new voices into the room. However, many organisations gradually drift toward a form of stability that discourages challenge. Policies, processes and practices become so familiar that leaders stop asking whether they still serve the organisation’s purpose. In many work environments, especially in finance and governance, stability is king. But transformative leaders are meant to be way makers, not gatekeepers, because stability left unexamined eventually turns into stagnation. At times, the most strategic decision a leader can make is simply to introduce a fresh perspective into the system.
In this quest, leaders must refresh the leadership lens, as growth often requires viewing situations from a different perspective. I recall a meeting where an outsider’s question shifted the discussion entirely. It opened ideas no one in the room had considered. That day, I noticed firsthand how even small changes could ripple across the team, changing habits that had persisted for years. It requires stepping away from familiar ideas, loyalties and habits. Only then can a leader encounter perceptions that provoke insight. Institutionally, “the room” is shaped by shared assumptions and unwritten rules—by how things are done, who gets heard, and what projects resources are applied to. Over time, norms acquire the weight of tradition. They feel stable, even safe. However, safety builds a silent but powerful resistance to renewal and growth, as what once protected progress can begin to prevent it. To change the room is to interrupt that tendency toward sameness and to create space for different questions to be asked and different answers to be considered. Introducing new perspectives and challenging established norms is not merely a leadership choice but a necessity for meaningful growth. Fresh voices can disrupt stagnation, inspire innovation and cultivate a culture where continuous improvement becomes the norm rather than the exception.
As an anchor for this discussion, consider the words of management thinker Peter Drucker, who observed, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” When this insight is intentionally applied, it becomes more than theory; it becomes a guiding principle for leaders. I’ve learnt from experience, and history has shown that growth only favours those willing to explore new approaches, whether by repositioning themselves, inviting fresh perspectives or reshaping culture. This often requires changing the room by creating spaces where ideas can be shared openly without fear of reprisal. It also means acknowledging that the logic, reasoning, and vision that brought an organisation here may not be enough to take it forward, particularly in the fluid environments in which businesses operate. The examples that follow illustrate how such shifts can help organisations correct strategic drift, reallocate capital more objectively, reset culture and renew leadership for sustained growth.
New rooms break strategic drift.
Strategic drift happens when an organisation fails to adapt its strategies to the changing external conditions. This stems from the overreliance on past successes rather than leveraging new trends or technologies. Old brooms may sweep clean, but they struggle to keep up with shifting landscapes. In long-tenured environments, underperformance can at times normalise because decline happens slowly and subtly. An external leader, who is less emotionally invested in legacy strategies, can make sharper course corrections. For example, when Satya Nadella became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft in 2014, the company was facing stagnation due to its heavy reliance on Windows licensing. Nadella shifted the company culture from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all,” emphasising empathy, a growth mindset, and a cloud-first strategy that repositioned the company beyond its historical reliance on Windows. I infer from this that culture shifts fundamentally change how teams approach problems and collaborate across silos. This significantly impacted Microsoft’s market value growth in subsequent years and transformed the company into a modern, dominant, high-growth technology leader. This change in leadership context created a new strategic lens, and growth followed strategic reorientation.
External leaders reallocate capital more objectively
Capital is the lifeblood of a business. It fuels growth initiatives, enables acquisitions, supports research and development, meets debt obligations and rewards shareholders through dividends or share buybacks. Capital allocation is the strategic process of allocating a company’s scarce resources across projects, assets, or investments to maximise long-term shareholder value and generate strong returns on investment (ROI). However, internal systems often protect legacy projects and entrenched power centres, making it challenging to redirect capital toward the highest-value projects, growth investments, and/or opportunities with superior risk-adjusted returns.
A new leader, who is less bound by internal loyalties, can redirect capital to higher-yield priorities. For example, Alan Mulally left Boeing Commercial Aeroplanes to lead Ford Motor Company in 2006 when the company was in deep crisis. Ford Motor Company was losing billions due to bloated, outdated product lines, and its corporate culture was dysfunctional. He eliminated overlapping brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, and Mercury, and consolidated strategy under the “One Ford” plan. These disciplined capital decision initiatives, enabled by a change in leadership, allowed Ford Motor Company to avoid bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis, unlike its competitors, which sought Federal bailouts.
Cultural reset unlocks performance.
Sometimes, growth is constrained not by strategy but by culture. Organisational culture is the shared values, beliefs, norms and practices that shape people’s behaviour and interaction within a company. As Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In other words, no matter how strong a company’s strategy may be, its underlying culture ultimately determines whether it succeeds or fails. A new leadership environment can dismantle such norms. For example, after Travis Kalanick stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Uber Technologies Inc. in 2017, Dara Khosrowshahi took over as CEO and prioritised governance reforms, regulatory compliance, and financial discipline. These changes led to Uber’s first annual operating profit in 2023. The shift in leadership context recalibrated accountability and restored investor confidence, which demonstrates that sustainable growth requires not only strategic focus but also a deliberate change of the room.
New leadership sparks growth.
As Jim Collins argues in his book Good to Great, transformation begins with getting “the right people in the right seats.” Changing the room does not always mean moving yourself, but every so often, it means replacing leadership that has become synonymous with stagnation. Leadership transitions can reshape an organisation’s risk appetite, decision velocity, and investment time horizon, enabling bolder choices and more focused resource deployment. For example, Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Inc. in 1976 alongside Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. He later left the company following a power struggle with directors, but when he returned later in 1997 after years away, the American technology firm was financially troubled and neared bankruptcy. In the years that followed, Jobs streamlined the company’s product line, eliminated underperforming projects, focused the company on design and user experience, and introduced iconic products such as the iMac, iPod, and, later, the iPhone, which together transformed Apple into one of the most valuable companies in the world. The same individual, in a renewed context and leadership environment, catalysed exponential growth. The leadership shift reset vision, restored discipline and accelerated innovation.
In conclusion, in today’s disruptive business environment, every leader seeks growth, strategizes for growth and often fundraises to achieve it. The constant buzz can be both financially and mentally exhausting. Nevertheless, without making tactical moves, whether through strategic refocusing, capital reallocation, cultural reform or leadership renewal, growth will remain elusive.
Changing the room, however, creates the conditions for meaningful innovation and sustained organisational success. As Valarie observed, and history repeatedly confirms, nothing grows in spaces that prioritise comfort over curiosity. Leadership thinker Marshall Goldsmith famously said, “What got you here won’t get you there.”
The writer is a member of ICPAK
Email: [email protected]
