Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Richard Rumelt, in Good Strategy Bad Strategy,makes strategic thinking readily available all. There is a lot of clear thinking here that will enlighten readers. For example, aspiration is not strategy. JFK proposed that we go to the moon in a decade. That was technically possible. Going to Mars is technical available to us as well. However, since Kennedy’s moon shot project people have been confusing aspiration with strategy. The implication is that if we just set goals they will be attained. Rumelt sets the reader straight. Rumelt goes beyond telling readers What they should do to telling the readers HOW to do it. Rumelt strays into military strategy at times and his examples can be a little long for my taste. However, this book is still a worthwhile read. After this book interested readers may want to pickup Joan Magretta’s (2011) Understanding Michael Porter and then tackle Michael Porter’s (1998) Competitive Strategy. A third volume, a favorite of mine, is Henry Mintzberg’s Strategy Safari which introduces the reader to all of the basic schools of strategic planning thought. He makes the argument that there is no such thing as strategy and cognitive scientists just might agree. The reading of Sean Runnette is very good. Enjoy.

A book that sounds a bit 'dorky' like this one I normally leave alone for fear of empty words. But I am very happy to have picked this one up!

Rummelt is a very senior strategist to big and smaller firms, and have seen where they can go wrong: confusing objectives with strategy ("our strategy is to grow revenue"), strategy with excel sheets or (worst of all, and very hot right now) confusing leadership ("a will to succeed") with strategy.

Instead, he outlines a simple yet powerful method of building a strategy:
1. diagnose the situation and determine the key challenge for the organisation/firm
2. develop/create a guiding policy (Porter would say, competitive strategy) to overcome the challenge or reap the opportunity
3. develop and execute a coherent action plan.

He goes on the enrich each of these parts, which to a certain extent have been discussed elsewhere (Porter, Ansoff, Hamel, Kaplan) but not in such a concise and easy to follow way.

The strength of the book is not only in how strategies should be build and executed, but also how many companies go wrong: e.g. that your strategy needs commitment from the organization is ruthlessly attacked: if the entire organisation agrees with the strategy, there is no 'hard' choice involved. A strategy that pleases all in the end does not deliver. Though provoking and pragmatic at the same time.

What I personally found most pleasing is that Rummelt does not say that planning is better than execution, or leadership is superior or not, but that all are parts in a chain that need to fit together. You need strategy AND execution AND leaderhip AND creativity/innovation AND ...while simultaneously focusing your energy.

If you are in a leadership or management position in any organisation, private or public, I highly recommend this book for its framework, coherence and ease of understanding, combined with its focus on the essential elements and pitfalls.

Runnette does the impossible in this book and makes a book on strategy interesting. It's amazing how stories and anecdotes can make all the difference. By highlighting some funny examples of bad strategy, good strategy becomes more and more obvious in contrast. Looking forward to future books from Runnette.

The print version does put perspective that the audio book doesn't, but this is true with all audio books - the limitations of being able to visualize lists and paragraph structure

Lectures by Olivier Fourcadet, a divine professor of Competitive Strategy who seriously put perspective on such a profound topic

Long train running

Not a suitable question for a non fiction title

The book was a good take on strategy. It has a lot of academic thought put into it which helps one move from the classroom to the boardroom. However, I didn't agree with some of the perspectives put in the book - it leaves one no room to either listen to self perception or market perception of an idea. Was confused on that particular point.

The author presents a very clear framework for understanding strategy and uses compelling examples to illustrate the elements of strategy.

don't know. Haven't done the print version

don't know as I don't know what he has done

This was not a novel, so this is an irrelevant question

again wrong question

You need to differentiate the questions for a business book and a novel. They are totally different