Strategy
The first natural advantage of good strategy arises because other organizations often don’t have one. And because they don’t expect you to have one, either.
Richard Rumelt • Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters
Good strategy is not just “what” you are trying to do. It is also “why” and “how” you are doing it. A good guiding policy tackles the obstacles identified in the diagnosis by creating or drawing upon sources of advantage. Indeed, the heart of the matter in strategy is usually advantage. Just as a lever uses mechanical advantage to multiply force,
... See moreRichard Rumelt • Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
strategy is a mixture of policy and action designed to surmount a crucial challenge
Richard Rumelt • The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists
Clients come to experts with challenges that they can’t solve. They’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit and it’ll take a ladder to get the rest. Or they’ve eaten everything on the plate except the vegetables and it’s going to be a slog to get through the rest of the meal.
David C. Baker, Emily Mills, • Secret Tradecraft of Elite Advisors: Covert Techniques for a Remarkable Practice
Despite the roar of voices wanting to equate strategy with ambition, leadership, “vision,” planning, or the economic logic of competition, strategy is none of these. The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors.
Richard Rumelt • Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Furthermore, a good strategic diagnosis does more than explain a situation—it also defines a domain of action.
Richard Rumelt • Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters
In all cases, strategy is the process of confronting and solving critical challenges. I emphasize this because there is a widespread misconception that a business strategy is some sort of long-range sketch of a desired destination. I encourage you to think of strategy as a journey through, over, and around a sequence of challenges.
Richard P. Rumelt • The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists
The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action.
Richard Rumelt • Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters
Good guiding policies are not goals or visions or images of desirable end states. Rather, they define a method of grappling with the situation and ruling out a vast array of possible actions.
Richard Rumelt • Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Good guiding policy