“Strategic Clarity offers executives a clear, research-grounded way to diagnose why strategy breaks down in behavior and how to fix it. A rare fusion of academic rigor and managerial clarity.”
—Vijay Govindarajan, Thinkers 50 Hall of Fame, Coxe Distinguished Professor of Management, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

“Strategic Clarity is one of those rare strategy books that actually makes complex ideas feel usable. Kyle Harkema takes big academic concepts—entrepreneurial mindset, market orientation, opportunity spotting—and breaks them down into clear, practical guidance leaders can apply right away. If you want a smarter, more grounded way to make strategic decisions without the usual buzzwords this book is the one you’ll keep coming back to.”
—Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Great companies are simultaneously more market-driven and more entrepreneurial than competitors. Strategic Clarity brings new insights into how these two orientations can coexist and reinforce one another, and the ways in which they produce transformative approaches to creating, reaching, and serving markets.”
—Michael H. Morris, PhD, professor, entrepreneurship and social Innovation, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

“I’ve watched countless executives freeze, panic, or double down at exactly the wrong moment. Kyle’s four-quadrant framework finally explains why—and more importantly, shows how to break these patterns. If you’ve ever wondered why your team’s best thinking disperses during a crisis, read this book.”
—Charlene Li, New York Times bestselling author and coauthor of Winning with AI: The 90-Day Blueprint for Success

“World-class performance in entrepreneurial environments derives from adaptable models that harmonize with how firms think and act. Because successful firms must think and act in increasingly unique ways, the field of strategy needs new and dynamic firm-level approaches, like the one in this book, for use in both scholarly contexts and practical settings.”
—Patrick J. Murphy, Goodrich Endowed Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Alabama at Birmingham

“As both an academic and a practitioner in Marketing, I have come to believe that the philosophy of Marketing held individually and collectively in the organization directly guides the practice of Marketing. The material provided by Dr. Harkema is very valuable because it helps the person and the organizational leader diagnose the orientation that is shaping the practice of Marketing. Strategic Clarity provides significant insights for business results. This is a resource that I want to use with my students and one that informs me as I work with organizations.”
—Michael Wiese, marketing professor, Point Loma Nazarene University

“The Strategic Orientation Index™ gave our executive team something we’ve been missing for years—a shared language for what we were feeling but couldn’t measure. We’ve done strategic plans before, but SOI was the first tool that actually revealed how differently our teams were interpreting and enacting strategy.

“The results were eye-opening. Nine out of ten departments saw themselves in the Hybrid Zone, not because people were misaligned in intent, but because we were behaving out of sync. The SOI session didn’t just diagnose the issue—it created clarity, energy, and momentum in the room. My team immediately recognized themselves in the findings, and more importantly, saw a path forward. What stood out to me personally was how practical the framework felt. It wasn’t academic theory—it explained what we were experiencing every day.

“The conversation it sparked across sales, product, operations, marketing, and engineering was one of the most productive strategic dialogues we’ve had as a leadership team.

“SOI helped us choose Insightful Optimizer™ as our strategic aspiration—a posture that fits our culture, our market, and the disciplined, relationship-driven way we want to grow. Dr. Harkema’s work has already influenced our priorities, especially around Voice of Customer and cross-functional coordination.

“For any mid-market firm looking to grow with strategic discipline, SOI is one of the clearest and most actionable tools I’ve seen. It helped us see ourselves honestly and move forward with intention.”
—Mitch Kehler, CEO, KMC Controls

“Harkema’s Strategic Clarity extends the work of gurus at the intersection of strategy content and process, combining theory with operational precision. He provides an elegant system for turning strategic intent into ubiquitous organizational behavior in a focused manner. A must-read for founders and executives pursuing disciplined growth, especially in times of significant market and economic uncertainty and upheavals.”
—Joe LiPuma, consultant and clinical associate professor, Questrom School of Business, Boston University