StrategyGood Strategy Bad StrategyRichard Rumelt
Editorial guide•English edition
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
A practical distinction between strategy as diagnosis and choice versus strategy as slogans, ambitions or lists of goals.
Why it matters
Organizations often call aspirations 'strategy' without identifying the obstacle or concentrating resources against it.
02
Core ideas
What is worth remembering after you close the page
01
Diagnose the challenge
Good strategy starts by naming the critical structure of the problem.
02
Choose a guiding policy
The policy narrows the space of possible actions and makes trade-offs explicit.
03
Coordinate action
Individual initiatives matter when they reinforce the same strategic choice.
03
Turn it into action
Three things to test today
- 1
Write the central obstacle in one sentence.
- 2
Choose one policy that tells the team what not to do.
- 3
Remove one initiative that does not reinforce the diagnosis.
This guide explains the book's ideas in independent wording and does not reproduce the original structure or text. Read the original for the full argument, examples and context.
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