Strategy
Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
Diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action. Miss one and what you have is a goal with a deadline.
it doesn't mean the grab bag of everything that you can think of that might matter, it means what's first
UCLA Anderson professor, author of Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt wrote Good Strategy Bad Strategy and The Crux, was a longtime professor at UCLA Anderson and has consulted on strategy with Microsoft, Apple and Intel. He defines strategy as a mix of policy and action designed to deal with a challenge, and it starts with a diagnosis of what is going on. He now calls the result an action agenda, built around the one or two key challenges that can actually be addressed.
Lenny's Podcast 00:48 00:55 01:10 05:01 08:40 1:01:52 1:46:43
Focus
The Crux
Focus on the most significant and addressable challenge that, once overcome, leads to progress towards ambitions - like the crux in climbing (the most difficult part of…
The Four Hallmarks of Bad Strategy
Bad strategy is not simply the absence of good strategy -- it is an active phenomenon with four identifiable hallmarks. Recognizing these patterns is the first step to…
The Crux: Challenge-Based Strategy
The crux is the most critical challenge that is both important and addressable -- the aspect of a pivotal challenge that is surmountable and promises the greatest…
The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists (2022)
Goals, ambitions, visions, missions, and values are not strategy. Strategy is fundamentally about what you will do in response to a challenge.
When an organization confuses aspirational statements with actionable strategy.
Product strategy
Strategy
Diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action. Miss one and what you have is a goal with a deadline.
it doesn't mean the grab bag of everything that you can think of that might matter, it means what's first
Good Strategy Kernel
Good strategy has three essential elements: a diagnosis of the core challenge, a guiding policy to address it, and coherent actions that support the policy. Missing any…
The Kernel of Good Strategy
Every good strategy has a logical structure called the kernel, consisting of three inseparable elements: a diagnosis that defines the challenge, a guiding policy that…
Sources of Power
Good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Rumelt identifies nine sources of strategic power that serve as tools for…
Moats
If a competitor's behavior seems irrational or stuck, they are probably suffering from inertia of routine, cultural inertia, or inertia by proxy -- this creates an opportunity for you.
When analyzing competitor behavior and looking for strategic openings.
Coordination is one of the most basic, enduring, and underappreciated sources of strategic advantage. A well-coordinated strategy is hard to copy.
Strategic coordination is not ad hoc mutual adjustment -- it is coherence imposed on a system by policy and design. When actions are coherent and mutually reinforcing,…
The best strategies come from proprietary insights, not generally available knowledge.
If everyone has the same information and draws the same conclusions, there is no strategic advantage. True strategic power comes from seeing what others do not see,…
Scaling
If executives complain about execution problems, the root cause is probably that goals were set without a real strategy -- the strategy itself is the problem, not the execution.
When diagnosing organizational performance issues framed as 'execution failures.'
If an organization is weakly managed and drifting, entropy is probably the primary challenge -- organizational renewal should take priority over external strategy.
When diagnosing an organization's strategic challenges and the organization itself seems disordered.
Richard Rumelt
assumes you will have rivals and tells you how to beat them. Diagnose the crux, concentrate force at the decisive point, and apply a named source of power such as leverage or focus. Competition is the terrain, not a mistake.
calls competition a loser's game. Profits get bid away in a crowded market and companies converge on each other, so the real move is to build something new enough that nobody is standing there to fight.