good-strategy-bad-strategy

Strategy is a cohesive response to an important challenge.

Good Strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say <strong>NO</strong> to a wide variety of actions and interests.

Rumelt's book identifies and details the four major hallmarks of <strong>Bad Strategy</strong>:

~ Fluff
~ Failure to face the challenge
~ Mistaking goals for strategy
~ Bad strategic objectives

<strong>Good Strategy</strong> works by focusing energy and resources on one, or a few, pivotal objectives whose accomplishment will lead to a cascade of favorable outcomes.

According to Rumelt the kernel of <strong>Good Strategy</strong> contains three elements:

~ A diagnosis
~ A guiding policy
~ A set of coherent actions

The kernel is the bare-bones center of a strategy—the hard nut at the core of the concept.

Sorting out these three elements requires time, energy and cooperation.  Examples that help bring these three elements into focus include both geopolitical (The Space Race, The collapse of the Soviet Union and The Gulf War) and corporate (General Motors, Xerox, IBM, Intel, Microsoft vs. Apple, IKEA and Starbucks, among others).

If you are looking for cookie-cutter answers or templates to develop your corporate strategy, you will not find them here.  Instead, you will find a thought-provoking discussion about strategy development at the geopolitical and corporate levels.

If you are looking for a companion piece on corporate strategy, check out <strong><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/273233175">Understanding Michael Porter</a></strong> (five stars).

Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on <strong>Business Leadership</strong> and <strong>Business Strategy</strong> at <strong><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/webapprentices/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>.</strong>