---
id: "quote-failure-to-focus"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ 3. They relentlessly focus on high-impact priorities."]
tags: ["focus", "prioritization", "failure-modes"]
related: ["claim-focus-is-discipline", "framework-priority-setting"]
speaker: "Retail company CEO"
sources: ["tail2"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail2"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-tail-121-best-pe-backed-ceos"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/what-the-best-private-equity-backed-ceos-do-differently"
sourceTitle: "What the Best Private Equity-Backed CEOs Do Differently"
---
# Failure is a Failure to Focus

> "Every company I have looked at that has not been doing well has been because of a failure to focus."
> — a highly successful **retail-company CEO**

Names the root cause of underperformance in portfolio companies and motivates [[claim-focus-is-discipline]] and the [[framework-priority-setting]] mechanism. The speaker is anonymized in the source, so there is no separate person entity.