When Sound Strategy Isn't Enough: Cohesion Defines the Discipline of Business Direction

ST. LOUIS - EntSun -- In many organizations, strategy itself is not the problem. Leadership teams invest time, experience and judgment into defining vision, setting priorities and determining where the business is headed. Yet even when that thinking is sound, results often begin to diverge once work moves into execution.

According to Cohesion, the issue emerges after strategy is set — when leadership intent is not fully articulated into clear direction, or when that direction is not actively governed as decisions spread across people, partners, platforms and systems.

"The thinking is usually sound," said Brian Creath, founder of Cohesion. "Where organizations often run into trouble is in articulation and governance. If intent isn't translated into usable direction, or if it isn't stewarded once execution begins, interpretation starts filling the gaps."

For more than 25 years, Cohesion has helped organizations clarify meaning through brand and brand direction. That work remains essential. Over time, however, the firm identified a recurring pattern: even with strong strategy and clear brand expression, leadership intent often loses consistency as the organization operates and scales.

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Cohesion now defines this work as Business Direction.

Business Direction is the disciplined, ongoing practice of translating leadership intent into clearly articulated direction — and ensuring that direction continues to govern interpretation and decision-making over time.

The discipline rests on two core pillars: clarity and governance.

Clarity ensures that strategy and vision are expressed with enough precision to guide real decisions. Governance ensures that once direction exists, it continues to guide decisions as responsibility is distributed and systems expand.

"AI is the tipping point," Creath added. "It fills in what hasn't been clearly articulated or governed — and those interpretations increasingly shape downstream decisions and outcomes."

Business Direction operates upstream of traditional marketing and execution: before campaigns, before messaging and before content creation. Brand direction remains critical to the work, but brand alone was never designed to govern how intent is applied across an entire organization.

"As creation becomes effortless, human discernment and direction become priceless," said Creath.

To learn more, visit: https://cohesioncompany.com