The Spotlight Isn’t the Stage

Some ideas feel so right, so clear, that we forget to look around.

A client came to us wanting to bring their outsourced commerce business back in-house. In their minds, the move was straightforward: build a storefront. That was the spotlight — the shiny part. The customer-facing piece they could see.

But the real work wasn’t in the build. It was in everything behind it:

• sourcing and fulfillment,
• data and org readiness,
• owning and operating the stack,
• orchestrating dozens of capabilities that had quietly been someone else’s problem.

They were trying to step into the spotlight without realizing they hadn’t built the stage.

I can build you the fastest, flashiest car — but it’s useless if it sits in the garage with no one who knows how to drive it.

That’s not just a planning problem. It’s a decision hygiene problem.

What Decision Hygiene Really Means

We glorify the big call: the moment the leader says this is the way.

But most bad outcomes don’t come from choosing wrong.
They come from deciding dirty — with fuzzy inputs, shallow framing, or pure gut-feel momentum.

Decision hygiene is how we resist that.
It’s a posture of slowing down to ask:

• Are we solving the right problem?
• What assumptions are we skipping past?
• What systems does this decision depend on?

Hygiene isn’t a framework. It’s a habit. A way of thinking before acting. Of widening the lens before locking in the move.

The Strategy You See vs. The System You Need

Surface thinking is seductive.

A storefront feels like strategy. A deck looks like a plan. A pilot seems like traction.

But surface moves without structural thinking are like building stage lights without rigging the platform beneath. No one can perform on that.

Real strategy requires:

• clean inputs,
• clear ownership,
• invisible but essential architecture.

It asks leaders to see the whole system — not just the bright part.

When Passion Blinds You

Good ideas get dangerous when they move too fast.

When conviction outpaces understanding.
When what’s exciting masks what’s missing.
When a visible win takes precedence over system readiness.

The challenge isn’t ambition — it’s scope blindness.

In commerce, that looks like:

• launching a new channel without fulfillment readiness,
• owning tech without owning operations,
• investing in features no one is prepared to run.

Closing: From Spotlight to Stagecraft

If you lead strategy, the question isn’t: Is this idea good?
It’s: Do we understand what it lives inside of?

The spotlight matters. But if the stage isn’t built, lit, wired, and supported — nothing holds.

Good decisions don’t just require vision. They require stagecraft.