HOWARD YU | LEGO Professor of Management and Innovation, IMD Business School
JIALU SHAN | Research Fellow, IMD Business School

Most executives know what needs to get done but there is always a gap between intention and the realized strategy of the firm. We investigated three industries (the automotive, banking, and the consumer goods sectors) and showed how some companies can close such knowing-and-doing gap and beat the competition. We relied on hard market data and ranked companies based on the likelihood that they acquire new knowledge in their efforts to prepare for the future. Such findings can be generalized for other sectors; consequently, providing a set of important lessons for managers at large.