When Execution Fails, the Strategy Was Already Broken

By David Roberts, CEO of Verra Mobility (Heading 5)

In periods of relative stability, business models tend to fade into the background. Leaders focus on execution, growth, and optimization. But in periods of sustained uncertainty—when risk multiplies and discipline matters most—business models move back to the center of leadership attention.

That is where many CEOs find themselves today.

No longer abstract descriptions of how a company makes money, business models are becoming strategic levers that shape decision-making, investment priorities, and organizational alignment. In an environment defined by technological acceleration and economic volatility, the clarity of the business model often determines whether change produces durable outcomes or unintended consequences.

Business Models Shape Outcomes (Heading 5)

A business model defines the logic of the enterprise: how value is created for customers, how it is delivered, and how it is captured economically. That logic governs far more than revenue streams. It shapes which opportunities to pursue, where capital is deployed, how risk is managed, and which tradeoffs leadership is willing to make.

When the business model is clear, decisions reinforce one another. Strategy aligns with execution. Technology investments compound rather than fragment. When the model is ambiguous, even strong execution struggles to compensate. Performance gaps emerge not because teams are underperforming, but because the underlying economic logic is unclear.

Explicit business models are more powerful because they remove ambiguity.

In my experience, this is why we treat the business model as an operating system rather than a static framework. The Verra Mobility Operating System (vmOS) is how we translate business model clarity into day-to-day decisions. It provides a shared philosophy, values, and operating principles that align capital allocation, technology investment, and accountability to customer outcomes. vmOS is not about prescribing strategy; it ensures our operating decisions reinforce how we create and capture value.

We serve in capital-intensive, technology-enabled, and regulated environments where ambiguity surfaces quickly through margin pressure, renewal friction, adoption challenges, or stakeholder tension. These are often treated as operational issues, but they are more accurately signals that the business model itself needs examination.

Operating Systems for Today’s Reality

Business models are still too often regarded as fixed frameworks, revisited only in the context of major organizational change. That approach no longer reflects today’s business and economic reality. Business models must function as living operating systems.

This does not mean constant reinvention. It means continuously testing whether the assumptions underpinning value creation and value capture remain valid as customer expectations, regulations, technology, and capital conditions evolve.

CEOs should move beyond traditional strategic planning cycles and ask: Where does technology improve customer outcomes rather than just add costs? Which constraints affect the business, and can they be turned into advantages? Are incentives, authority, and investments supporting real value creation?

When business models are used as operating lenses rather than planning artifacts, strategy becomes more disciplined, and execution is more coherent. 

A Roadmap for Value Creation

Many organizations operate with an implicit business model. Elements appear in pricing, product planning, and investment strategies. A business model is seldom seen as an integrated roadmap. 

Alignment improves when leaders clearly define how value is created, who it serves, and how it is captured across customers, partners, and regulators. Strategy moves from conceptual to operational. Capital allocation becomes more disciplined. Accountability improves when trade-offs are visible rather than assumed.

For example, AI investment has become a top priority for most CEOs. While organizations are deploying these powerful tools, most struggle to realize proportional returns. The primary obstacle is rarely technology. More often, it is a lack of clarity in the business model.

Without a clear understanding of where technology creates economic leverage — whether through cost structure, risk reduction, pricing, or customer experience — investments become disconnected from outcomes. Technology accelerates whatever business model it is embedded in. If that model is unclear, it accelerates complexity.

Optimization vs. Adaptation 

A critical leadership distinction is whether to optimize the current business model or adapt it.

Incremental optimization focuses on efficiency and improving existing tasks. It matters, and it should not be dismissed. But it has limits.

Business model adaptation revisits fundamentals. It asks whether the way value is created, delivered, and captured still reflects market reality. It may require redefining customer relationships, reallocating risk, adjusting contract structures, or changing capital deployment.

Durable performance comes not from squeezing more efficiency out of an unclear model. It’s the result of explicitly defining the model and then operating against it with discipline.

The Leadership Imperative 

Recent CEO surveys reinforce this reality. PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey highlights leaders seeking growth through technology while actively reinventing their business models amid uncertainty. The Conference Board’s 2026 C-Suite Outlook shows CEOs prioritizing business model change alongside AI investment and financial discipline. KPMG’s Global CEO Outlook adds another layer, pointing to leaders reinventing how their organizations create value while balancing innovation with risk and governance.

For leaders, the implication is clear: don’t think of the business model as background. Lead the business with it. Make it explicit. Test it continuously. Use it to guide investment and execution.

In an environment defined by uncertainty and acceleration, business models are not just how companies operate. They are how leadership decisions translate into sustainable outcomes.