Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters

This process of learning—hypothesis, data, anomaly, new hypothesis, data, and so on—is called scientific induction and is a critical element of every successful business.

The other way to grab the high ground—the way that is my focus here—is to exploit a wave of change. Such waves of change are largely exogenous—they are mostly beyond the control of any one organization. No one person or organization creates these changes. They are the net result of a myriad of shifts and advances in technology, cost, competition, p

increasing value requires a strategy for progress on at least one of four different fronts: • deepening advantages, • broadening the extent of advantages, • creating higher demand for advantaged products or services, or • strengthening the isolating mechanisms that block easy replication and imitation by competitors.

a shift from thinking about pure military capability to one of looking for ways to impose asymmetric costs on an opponent.

I came to see skills at coordination as if they were rungs on a ladder, with higher rungs in reach only when the lower rungs had been attained.

siren song of template-style strategy—filling in the blanks with vision, mission, values, and strategies. This path offers a one-size-fits-all substitute for the hard work of analysis and coordinated action.

Rather, the term “strategy” should mean a cohesive response to an important challenge.

The brilliance of good organization is not in making sure that everything is connected to everything else. Down that road lies a frozen maladaptive stasis. Good strategy and good organization lie in specializing on the right activities and imposing only the essential amount of coordination.

To obtain higher performance, leaders must identify the critical obstacles to forward progress and then develop a coherent approach to overcoming them.

The other way to grab the high ground—the way that is my focus here—is to exploit a wave of change. Such waves of change are largely exogenous—they are mostly beyond the control of any one organization.