A new management book by Nigerian transformation executive Akin Monehin is gaining traction across corporate circles following strong early performance on Amazon charts in the UK and the US.
The book, Execution Is a Lie, examines why strategy often collapses inside organisations and proposes a structural execution model built around systems, signals, and accountability.
After emerging as the number one title in Amazon’s competitive business and leadership categories, the book has continued to attract engagement from executives, transformation teams, and management educators. Analysts tracking its rise note that it has featured prominently in sections typically dominated by MBA learners, business-school reference materials, and graduate-level strategy texts.
The visibility has sparked growing interest in the frameworks at the heart of the book—particularly the RECODE™️ & ALIGN™️ Frameworks and the C3 Formula™️. These tools are now circulating among leadership teams seeking to strengthen execution infrastructure amid cost pressures, delivery risks and shifting market conditions.
Monehin, who has held leadership roles at Shell, NLNG, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways across 10 countries, argues that execution failures rarely stem from a lack of ambition. Rather, he attributes organisational underperformance to “architecture gaps”—weak systems, inconsistent signals, and insufficient consequence mechanisms that fail to reinforce intent at scale.
“Most organisations are not short of strategy,” he told the reporter. “They are short of the structures required to sustain strategy when operational pressure rises.”
Academic institutions have also taken notice. Following the book’s initial momentum, Monehin received invitations to teach its core ideas at Lagos Business School, the University of Texas at Dallas, Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
MBA students at the institutions examined the book’s central argument that execution requires a governance model, not motivational intervention. Faculty members described the frameworks as aligned with global debates on execution theory and organisational behaviour.
Corporate leaders engaging with the material say the frameworks offer a practical lens for diagnosing performance drift, especially in industries where value depends on operational consistency, regulatory responsiveness and disciplined execution routines.
The book arrives at a moment when Nigerian companies are grappling with rising delivery expectations, capital constraints and market volatility. Its core thesis—that execution is not an activity but an operating system—has resonated with organisations reevaluating their internal structures for sustaining performance.
