72% of CEOs Rewrote Growth Strategies — When Should You?

Seventy-two percent of CEOs had already adjusted their growth strategies in response to interconnected challenges, according to KPMG's 2025 Global CEO Outlook. That single figure frames an uncomfortable truth for founders: the plan you funded, staffed and defended may be the thing putting growth at risk.

An Entrepreneur contributor who runs a legal consulting firm advising fintechs on licensing and expansion makes the case plainly. "True business maturity is knowing when to let go of the original plan, adapt to changing circumstances and move forward in a new direction," they write.

The contributor knows the cost of clinging to a roadmap firsthand. A geopolitical shift wiped out half their market virtually overnight. The plan was built for conditions that no longer existed — and that lesson now shapes every planning cycle at the firm.

What do the numbers say about crypto regulation?

Fintech and crypto firms face the fastest-moving version of this problem. The Atlantic Council's September 2026 tracker classifies digital currencies as:

• Legal in 45 countries
• Partially banned in 20
• Generally banned in 10

In a market this fragmented, the gap between a business plan and reality can widen fast. The contributor sketches a common scenario: a company budgets for licensing, hires a local team and sets a launch date. Then regulatory requirements change, banking partners become harder to secure, and the cost of market entry climbs.

The question stops being whether the team can deliver the original plan. It becomes whether delivering it still makes business sense. The contributor's test is simple: "Given what we know now, would we make the same decision today?" If the answer is no, they argue, understand why before committing more money or people.

How do you change the plan without losing the goal?

Changing a plan doesn't mean abandoning the objective, the contributor writes. Concrete alternatives include:

• Postponing a launch
• Scaling back expansion spend
• Shifting focus to a different jurisdiction
• Narrowing the initial product to what the company can responsibly deliver

Their own firm pairs a five-year vision with an annual plan. Metrics and assumptions get reviewed monthly, with a deeper strategic review every three to four months — and sometimes more often, because industry regulation moves faster than any planning cycle can keep up with.

Every business decision rests on five concrete questions:

• Can we operate lawfully and sustainably in this market?
• Do we understand the full cost and likely timeline?
• Are qualified banking, payment and technology partners available?
• Can our teams support the expansion or restructuring without compromising existing customers?
• What evidence would make us confident enough to proceed?

Those questions, the contributor says, help decide whether to move ahead, pause or change course — and stop "being cautious" from becoming an excuse to avoid making a decision at all.

Why does changing course feel so hard?

Because other people have skin in the game. Clients, employees, investors and partners have already invested time, money and trust in the original plan. Changing direction means reconsidering their commitments, not just your own decisions.

The fix is honesty about uncertainty, the contributor argues: explain what the company knows now, what remains unclear and what it will do next. Employees need to know what changes in their work. Customers need realistic expectations. Investors and partners need to understand which risks the company is reducing and what conditions would justify resuming investment.

The contributor's model line cuts through the corporate fog: "We are delaying the launch because we cannot yet support it responsibly under the current conditions."

Which habits make course corrections easier?

The contributor recommends three practices:

• Regular strategy and financial reviews. A monthly calendar check on finances, strategy and priorities. Test whether the plan's assumptions still hold, and move resources when they don't.
• Scenario planning and crisis preparedness. Identify the risks that could disrupt the business. Decide what you'd protect, what you could pause and who would make the call.
• A culture of adaptability. Make it normal to raise concerns and question assumptions. You want to hear about a problem while you still have options, not after it becomes expensive.

The closing argument lands on leadership itself. A plan is a tool for reaching goals, not a promise to ignore reality. "The responsibility of a leader is not to defend yesterday's decisions," the contributor writes, "but to make the best possible decisions based on what they know today." For founders in regulated industries, that distinction is quickly becoming the difference between growth and a frozen roadmap.