The Strategic Discipline No Executive Wants to Talk About

Most executives are addicted to action.

They fear looking idle. They crave motion. They fill meetings, make noise, launch half-baked initiatives—not because it’s right, but because the alternative -- stillness -- feels much more dangerous.

But sometimes, the most powerful strategy is to wait.

Not delay. Not procrastinate.

Wait. With intention.

That’s what Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple in 1997.

At the time, Apple was weeks from bankruptcy. The product line was bloated and incoherent. The company was hemorrhaging money. Morale was crumbling.

And what did Jobs do?

He didn’t charge forward with a brilliant product vision.

He simplified.

Radically.

• He took an axe to Apple’s sprawling product line up, pruning the 15-product lineup down to just 4: a desktop and laptop for consumers, and the same for professionals.

• He eliminated entire categories of products—printers, servers, and the failed Newton.

• He severed 5 out of 6 major distribution relationships.

• He outsourced manufacturing, slashed inventory by 80%, and fired hundreds.

• He convinced Microsoft to invest $150 million in Apple, ensuring its survival and restoring credibility.

This wasn’t the bold innovation many expected from Jobs.

It was a rescue mission—designed to buy time.

And then?

He waited.

Richard Rumelt, the author of one of my favorite books on strategy, Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, interviewed Steve.

Rumelt asked Steve, “What’s your long-term move?”

Steve smiled and said:

“I’m going to wait for the next big thing.”

No roadmap. No five-year vision deck. No hype cycle to jump on.

Instead, he focused on simplifying, listening, watching. He waited for clarity. For timing. For something worthy of Apple’s next chapter.

That kind of patience is rare.

Because it’s terrifying to wait when everyone is looking at you to act. Especially when you're known as a visionary. Especially when the company is teetering on the edge.

But Jobs understood something most leaders don’t:

Great strategy is not about always moving.
It’s about knowing when not to move.

It took nearly two years before that next big thing began to emerge.

It started with the iMac.
Then the killer combo of iPod and iTunes.
Then the iPhone.
Then the iPad.

Each one feels obvious in hindsight. But they weren’t obvious at the time. They emerged from careful attention to shifts in user behavior, technology trends, and Jobs’s relentless obsession with taste.

That’s the lesson:
Sometimes the best move is to make space for emergence.

To secure the company.
To clear the noise.
To simplify to the point of coherence.
And then… to wait.

Not passively.
But as a strategic discipline.

That’s what Jobs did.

And it’s why Apple didn’t just survive.

It changed the world.

—
So here’s your challenge this week:
Where are you moving too fast—when you should be holding still?
Where is your craving for momentum keeping you from real insight?

Let yourself wait.

The next big thing may already be in the air.

You just need the space to see it.

—
Stay lucky,
Alex

Alex Nesbitt
Founder, Strategy Academy

P.S. When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

(1) Contact me for 1:1 CEO coaching and advisory services

(2) Take my online master class - Strategic Thinking for Advantage

(3) Apply to the Strategy Accelerator program for leaders and strategic professionals who want to master strategy in action.