Delivery and execution matters. Organisations exist to deliver for customers, stakeholders and colleagues. High standards, urgency and ambition all have an important place.

The challenge comes when delivery becomes the only measure of success. Overtime becomes routine, maintenance is deferred, CAPEX and OPEX are rolled into the next financial year, assets become increasingly tired and teams are repeatedly asked to absorb just one more push. The deadline is achieved, but much of the cost has simply been borrowed from the future.

The immediate success is easy to calculate and celebrate. The deferred consequences are much harder to connect. Reliability declines, maintenance backlogs grow, customer experience deteriorates, colleagues burn out and today's delivery discreetly consumes tomorrow's capacity.

Delivery at any cost rarely avoids the cost. It simply changes when, where and who eventually pays it.