Their strategy is in place. Does anyone actually understand it?

In most companies, the strategy is a document. Thirty slides, lots of arrows, even more words. The management team is familiar with the document. Hardly anyone else is. The work of developing the strategy is done. What’s missing is translating it into a form that others can understand and follow.

This is more than just a minor flaw. If employees continue to make their day-to-day decisions in exactly the same way as before, the new strategy effectively does not exist. And if investors fail to recognise the logic behind a decision, they will not reward it either.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review illustrates just how significant this difference is. João Cotter Salvado and Freek Vermeulen analysed 654 major corporate takeovers in the US between 2012 and 2017. Where the acquisition was presented using a slide illustrating the strategic rationale behind the deal, the capital market gave its immediate approval more than twice as often. The impact of such a slide on the post-announcement valuation was four times greater than that of photos, logos or traditional diagrams.

The downside is that very few companies use this approach. And where they do, the image is rarely designed in such a way that it actually makes the strategy understandable.

More than half of our brain is devoted to vision. We process visual information more quickly and accurately than text, provided it is organised correctly. Making a strategy understandable means recreating the mental model of leadership in the minds of employees and investors. A good image achieves this. A poor one causes confusion.

That is why visualising a strategy is not simply a design brief to be passed on to an agency once the strategic work is complete. It requires both at the same time: substantive content and effective communication. Those who focus solely on the content end up with overloaded slides that nobody understands. Those who focus solely on design end up with attractive images lacking substantive content.

The two researchers identify five characteristics that indicate an effective strategic framework:

1. Three to four core building blocks, not a dozen. Simple visuals are much better received on the capital markets, and people can piece together a coherent narrative from as few as three concepts.
2. From the broad picture to the finer details. First the overview, then a closer look at the individual building blocks. This reveals how the strategy translates into concrete action.
3. Use colour only if it serves to explain something – for example, to distinguish between different levels. Decoration causes confusion.
4. Arrows that show the way. They make it clear what leads to what. In the study, this alone increased the rating by 64 per cent.
5. From left to right. The eye processes horizontal arrangements more easily.

The five rules foster understanding. Whether people actually buy into a strategy is another matter. A second study by Martin Eppler, Andri Hinnen and Fabienne Bünzli, involving over 2,000 working people, shows that the same strategy – presented once as a straightforward diagram and once as a visual metaphor with a narrative structure – was understood equally well. However, the metaphor generated significantly more engagement. And engagement was directly linked to a willingness to actively implement the strategy.

There are Swiss examples. At Helsana, a hot-air balloon journey became the central image of their strategy communication. Franke also works with a strategic metaphor; employee engagement has demonstrably increased as a result.

However, a metaphor only works if it fits: with the leadership culture, the industry and the company’s ambitions. It must be familiar enough to resonate, yet fresh enough not to become tiresome as a cliché. An image imposed from the outside will fail. One that stems from one’s own reality will endure.

A strategy is only complete once it is understood. Externally, what counts is a clear visual representation that shows investors the logic behind it at a glance. Internally, what counts is the narrative that resonates with staff. Both can only be achieved if the content and design are considered together from the outset. Anyone who has to distil a strategy into a single image will quickly realise whether its logic holds up.

At Nuovia, strategy and communication design work hand in hand. We work with you to develop the core logic of your strategy and translate it into a visual concept that resonates with the board of directors, investors and staff. If you’d like to find out whether your strategy works as a visual concept, please get in touch with us.

• João Cotter Salvado, Freek Vermeulen: «You Should Be Able to Boil Your Strategy Down to a Single Clear Visualization», Harvard Business Review, Juli–August 2025.
• Martin J. Eppler, Andri Hinnen, Fabienne Bünzli: «Your Strategy Needs a Visual Metaphor», Harvard Business Review (HBR.org), 11. Februar 2026