Unfortunately one of the advantages of dictatures is that it move fast in one direction. The main problem being if the leader is intelligent enough to chose the right direction, which they rarely do.
On the other hand, democracies moves slowly, but the damages done by bad leaders are often counterbalanced by the good made by better leaders.
You are right. But I didn't mean that as "doing one thing well", but rather "focussing on a long term objective".