Most PS Firm 2026 Plans Will Fail By March. Here's Why (And What To Do About It)

The Annual Planning Ritual

November and December. Conference rooms across the professional services world fill with strategic planning sessions. Whiteboards covered with ambitious goals. Flip charts mapping new market positioning. Spreadsheets projecting 25% growth.

CEOs leave these sessions energized. Finally, a clear roadmap. This year will be different.

By March, 90% of these strategic initiatives are dead.

Not paused. Not delayed. Dead.

The positioning project that would differentiate you from competitors? Still a draft deck on someone's desktop.

The account expansion system that would unlock $2M in hidden revenue? Never got past the pilot phase.

The leadership development program that would reduce founder dependency? Cancelled after the first session because "everyone's too busy."

The Strategy Wasn't Wrong. You Just Had No Capacity To Execute It.

Here's the pattern I've seen across 100+ consulting and training firms:

• December: Strategic planning session. Real commitment. Clear priorities. "This time we're actually going to do this."

• January: Strong start. Kickoff meetings. Team aligned. Energy is high. First steps completed.

• February: Client deliverables accelerate. Major proposal due. Unexpected scope expansion on key account. "We'll get back to the strategic initiative next week."

• March: Strategic projects are now "when we have time" activities. Which means never. You're back to reactive mode. Chasing whatever opportunities appear. Heroic growth instead of systematic growth.

• Q2-Q4: The strategic plan sits in a drawer. You tell yourself "we'll pick this up next quarter" but you never do. Everyone's buried. Partners are maxing out on delivery. The urgent has completely consumed the important.

The Real Problem: You're Already Operating at 100% Capacity

Most professional services firms run lean. Partners are billing 60-80%. Senior consultants are maxed out on delivery. The CEO is wearing six hats.

Then you layer a strategic initiative on top requiring:

• 10 hours/week from the CEO

• 5 hours/week from each partner

• Coordination meetings

• Market research

• Content development

• Process documentation

Where do those hours come from?

They don't. You're asking people who are already at capacity to somehow find 20-30% more time. It's not a motivation problem. It's a math problem.

Case Study: The $18M Training Firm That Couldn't Execute

I worked with a leadership development firm at $18M revenue. Excellent reputation. Strong client relationships. But growth had stalled.

Their CEO knew exactly what needed to happen:

1. Systematic account expansion to capture cross-sell opportunities

2. Positioning refresh to differentiate from commoditized competitors

3. Partner development to reduce founder dependency

4. Marketing system to generate consistent inbound leads

Smart strategy. The firm had spent $40K on consulting to develop it.

None of it happened.

Why? The CEO was spending 40 hours/week on client work and internal operations. The three senior partners were each managing $4-5M in client relationships. Nobody had bandwidth to drive strategic initiatives.

The urgent consumed everything:

• Client deliverables that couldn't slip

• Proposals that had to get out

• Team issues that needed addressing

• Cash flow that required attention

Strategic work kept getting pushed to "next week." Months turned into quarters. Quarters turned into years. The strategy deck gathered dust.

Meanwhile, competitors were executing. Market position was eroding. The valuation multiple was stuck because buyers saw a founder-dependent firm with no systematic growth engine.

The firms that actually execute their strategic plans do three things differently:

1. They Acknowledge The Capacity Reality

They don't pretend their already-maxed-out team can somehow add strategic execution to their workload. They explicitly plan for execution capacity the same way they plan for delivery capacity.

If the strategic initiative requires 200 hours of work, they identify where those 200 hours will come from. Usually, it's one of three sources:

• Bringing in an operating partner to drive execution

• Reassigning someone from client delivery (with revenue impact acknowledged)

• Clearing urgent-but-not-strategic work off people's plates first

2. They Start With Self-Funding Quick Wins

Instead of launching the entire strategic plan at once, they identify initiatives that can generate immediate revenue to fund other improvements.

Example: Before repositioning the firm or building new capabilities, implement systematic account expansion. This typically unlocks $500K-$2M from existing relationships within 3-6 months. That revenue pays for the repositioning project, the leadership development, and the marketing system.

Self-funding strategy eliminates the "we can't afford this" objection and proves execution capability before tackling bigger initiatives.

3. They Bring In An Operating Partner For Execution

The most successful firms separate strategy from execution.

The CEO and partners develop the strategy. They know their market, their clients, their firm.

But they bring in an operating partner who can:

• Clear the urgent projects that keep slipping (immediate relief)

• Drive the strategic initiatives that require focused execution

• Build systematic capabilities that outlast any single project

• Operate as an extension of the leadership team, not an external consultant

This isn't abdication. It's smart resource allocation.

Your partners should be deepening client relationships and delivering excellence. That's what generates revenue and builds enterprise value.

Strategic execution shouldn't wait until they have spare time. Because they never will.

The Test: What Failed In 2025?

Look at your 2025 strategic plan. What initiatives are still incomplete?

That's not a failure of intention. It's a failure of execution capacity.

Now look at your 2026 plan. Does it require the same team—already maxed out—to somehow execute better this time?

If yes, you're setting up for the same result.

What Actually Works

The firms that break this cycle make execution capacity a first-class resource, not an afterthought.

Before finalizing your 2026 plan, answer these questions:

1. Who specifically will drive each strategic initiative? Not "the leadership team" or "marketing will handle it." Names. Hours per week. For how many months.

2. What will they stop doing to create that time? You can't add 30% more work to someone already at capacity. What client work, internal meetings, or administrative tasks get reassigned or eliminated?

3. What quick win can self-fund larger initiatives? What could generate $200K-$500K in the next 90 days to prove execution capability and fund bigger investments?

4. Do you need an operating partner to provide execution capacity? Not another strategy consultant. Someone who can drive projects to completion while your team focuses on clients.

Strategy is easy. Execution is hard.

Your 2026 plan deserves better than ending up in a drawer by March.

One Question: What's the one strategic initiative from 2025 that's still sitting incomplete? Reply and let me know—I'm curious what patterns emerge.

I'm Dario Priolo, and I work as a Strategic Operating Partner with PE firms and professional services CEOs who know what needs to happen but don't have the capacity to execute it.

As an extension of your leadership team, I clear the urgent projects creating immediate relief, then drive the strategic initiatives that actually build firm value. 25+ years as a PS CXO and M&A leader across firms like Deloitte, Hay Group, Miller Heiman, and Richardson. I know how these firms work, how buyers make decisions, and what drives premium valuations.

Planning your 2026 strategy? Let's talk about building actual execution capacity into your plan—not just hoping your maxed-out team finds more hours. Please message me to discuss.