In an ongoing global survey of senior executives, more than half of the respondents said they didn’t think their company had a winning strategy, and two-thirds said they didn’t think their organization had the right capabilities to execute its strategy. Baffled by these findings, we set out to find and study examples of extraordinary companies that close the gap between strategy and execution — companies such as Amazon, Apple, CEMEX, Danaher, Frito-Lay (the snacks enterprise within PepsiCo), and Haier. What we found surprised us: Companies that are great at both strategy and execution don’t follow the prevailing practices of their industries. Instead, leaders of these companies excel at five unconventional acts — management practices that contradict conventional wisdom.