Strategy misalignment occurs when executives emphasize strategic areas that customers do not value. On average, customers value one or two benefits, but executives base their strategy on six to eight. This misalignment reduces employee engagement, increases fixed and variable costs, and erodes competitive advantage. By reducing strategy alignment by 12.5%, companies can achieve 9.2% higher revenue, 5.2% higher gross margin, 8.8% free cashflow, 1.7% lower systematic risk, and 11.1% higher firm value.

This webinar discusses executive blind spots that cause this misalignment and shares case studies of companies that have overcome these blind spots using science-driven strategy. 

This is a free public event hosted by Rice Business Executive Education and C-CUBES (the Center for Customer-Based Execution and Strategy). Please register below.

About Vikas Mittal

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Vikas Mittal is the J. Hugh Liedtke Professor of Marketing at Rice Business. Prior to joining Rice, he was on the faculty at Katz Graduate School of Management and Kellogg Graduate School at Northwestern University.

In addition to publications in leading marketing journals, Mittal has published extensively on decision making in journals such as Organization Studies, Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Psychiatry, Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. He currently serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals.

Mittal holds a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in management from Temple University. He has received many awards for his research and leadership, including the teaching excellence award for his role in the Professional MBA program at Rice Business in 2013. 

Other programs taught by Professor Mittal: 

Continue the conversation by joining us at Science-Driven Strategy (Formerly known as Customer-Centric Strategy) from November 11-14, 2025.

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