When I became CEO, I spent my first six months obsessing over everything inside the business. Revenue reports. Team dynamics. Operational efficiency. Process improvements.

I thought that's what good CEOs did. Get deep into their organisations and optimise everything.

Then a board member asked me a simple question: "What's changing outside your business that could make all this internal work irrelevant?"

I didn't have a good answer.

That question changed how I think about strategy. Because here's the uncomfortable truth: most CEOs are so focused on what's happening inside their organizations that they're missing the strategic signals that actually matter. 

The Isolation Problem

Research from DDI's 2025 Global Leadership Forecast reveals that 64% of leaders identify "setting strategy" as essential, yet only 37% have received any training in it.* This was me as a first time CEO. Truth be told Strategic Thinking did not come naturally to me. Give me a gnarly problem to solve and I was there, practical and ready to spring into action. I had to recognise the risk if I did not start paying attention, and my executive teams attention to what was going on outside of our business, The gap isn't about intelligence, it's about isolation.

When you're inside your business every day, you start making decisions based on what you know, not what's actually happening in the market.

You assume you understand your competitive position. You believe you know how customers make buying decisions. You think you're clear on where your industry is heading.

But what if you're wrong?

The scariest part? You won't know until it's too late.

What The Most Effective CEOs Do Differently

The CEOs who consistently stay ahead aren't smarter. They're more systematic about gathering external intelligence.

They don't wait for annual strategy sessions to think about their market. They create regular touchpoints with the reality outside their organizations. They learn from customers who chose competitors, board members with different industry perspectives and emerging players doing things differently.

They treat external intelligence gathering like a discipline, not an occasional activity.

But here's what makes this hard: there's no natural rhythm for external focus. Your calendar fills with internal meetings. Your team brings you internal problems. Your instinct is to focus on what you can control.

Three Reality Checks Most CEOs Skip

1. The Competition Reality Check

Most CEOs research their obvious competitors. But when was the last time you actually understood why a customer chose someone else? Not what your sales team told you—what the customer actually said when you sat across from them and asked.

That conversation will tell you more about your competitive position than any analyst report.

2. The Positioning Reality Check

You know how you position your company. But how do industry experts describe you when you're not in the room? What category do they put you in? What alternatives do they mention in the same breath?

That gap between your positioning and external perception? That's where strategic blind spots live.

3. The Innovation Reality Check

When did you last study how companies outside your industry solve similar customer problems? Some of the best strategic moves come from adapting innovations that already work elsewhere.

But you can't adapt what you never see.

Making External Focus Systematic

The problem isn't that CEOs don't understand the value of external perspective. It's that without structure, it doesn't happen consistently.

You need a system that creates regular external intelligence touchpoints. Monthly actions that pull you out of internal operational mode and into strategic external thinking.

Questions like:

• What's changing in how customers make buying decisions?

• What competitive threats am I underestimating?

• What does my board see that I'm missing?

• What innovations exist outside my industry that I could adapt?

When you build systematic external intelligence gathering into your rhythm, you stop being surprised by market shifts. You see opportunities earlier. You make better strategic bets.

Where Most CEOs Get This Wrong

The mistake isn't ignoring external focus. It's approaching it sporadically.

You do a competitor analysis when you're preparing for a board meeting. You talk to customers when there's a problem. You scan industry trends when you have time.

But strategy doesn't work that way. By the time you're reacting to external changes, you're already behind.

The CEOs who build sustainable competitive advantage? They've made external intelligence gathering as routine as reviewing financial metrics.

What This Actually Looks Like

I'm not talking about adding more meetings or hiring consultants to do market research for you.

I'm talking about structured monthly actions that take an hour but give you strategic clarity that's worth millions:

• A lunch with a customer who chose a competitor

• A call with a board member about industry positioning

• Attending someone else's industry event as a customer would

• Studying how a different industry solves your problem

Small consistent actions that keep you connected to market reality instead of living inside your organisational bubble.

Because here's what I've learned: your biggest strategic advantage isn't what you know about your business. It's what you see about your market that others don't.

The Bottom Line

You can't see your own blind spots from inside your organization.

The market intelligence that matters most, how customers really make decisions, what competitive threats you're underestimating, where your industry positioning is weak, exists outside your business.

And waiting for your team to bring you that intelligence doesn't work. By the time it filters up to you, it's already interpreted, softened, or outdated.

Successful CEOs don't wait for external intelligence to find them. They systematically go get it.

That's the difference between reacting to market changes and leading through them.

Want to see what systematic external intelligence gathering looks like?

I've created a 2-month preview of The CEO's External Reality Calendar, monthly strategic actions that keep you connected to the market intelligence your internal view can't provide.

Practical monthly actions that reveal what you're missing about your competition, your customers, and your market position.

[Get your 2-month preview here]

Because the strategic opportunities you can't see yet? Those are the ones that matter most.

Source: * DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2025, https://www.ddiworld.com/research/global-leadership-forecast-2025