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Interesting that he's not sure what a strategy consists of after reading the book. I read the same book and it does give a definition, with three essential part
by ajb 5y ago
Interesting that he's not sure what a strategy consists of after reading the book. I read the same book and it does give a definition, with three essential parts, but frustratingly doesn't then link the examples back to show how they illustrate the definition.
Rumelt says good strategy consists of:
"1. A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of the challenge. A good diagnosis simplifies the often overwhelming complexity of reality by identifying certain aspects of the situation as critical.
2. A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge. This is an overall approach chosen to cope with or overcome the obstacles identified in the diagnosis.
3. A set of coherent actions that are designed to carry out the guiding policy. These are steps that are coordinated with one another to work together in accomplishing the guiding policy."
- asplake 5y agoA number of writers (Mintzberg being perhaps the most notable one) point out just how inconsistent definitions of strategy are. It’s hard! I enjoyed Rumelt, but to some eyes, he over-simplifies. “Strategy as theory” for example isn’t well represented. There’s room for it perhaps in the second and third points, not so much in the first.
- m12k 5y agoThanks for referencing that. Maybe it's semantics, but as someone coming at this from a game design perspective, 1 and 2 are clearly strategic, but I'd have said 3 is tactical rather than strategic. Tactics are the mid-level actions/subgoals that are used to implement a strategy. You can have a strategy without tactics - though usually you will need them in order for the strategy to succeed.
- ajb 5y agoRumelt is fairly keen on a strategy having actions because otherwise it doesn't get linked to what people actually do. I don't know what actions he would consider strategic, but I guess things like 'enter/exit the market for X', 'develop the capacity to do Y in house' would be fairly obviously not tactical.
- petewailes 5y agoActions and tactics in this sense are different. An action at a strategy level might be "cull products not aligned with a focus on the athli-leisure market" or "create a new line of footwear positioned around the fashion tastes of the West Coast market", or "investigate new formulations to reduce reliance on lithium". They're not tactical - no-one has yet made a decision on how those things will be done, or what elements of the business will enact them, or what the management and operational implications will be and how they'll be dealt with. It's a level of abstraction above tactics.
- k__ 5y agoThanks, I bought the book now.
- thenerdhead 5y agoI’m with you here. It was quite clear what is and isn’t a strategy by the end of the book. I even made a YouTube video summary of this topic outlining these points. I think if you start with 1. you can figure out the rest from there. If you can’t see what’s broke, you can’t fix it.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoI've seen the advice in other contexts that "if you get into a crisis, step one is to define what success is and what's failure". Otherwise you end up flailing around without accomplishing anything.
- thenerdhead 5y agoDefinitely agree here. I've seen this firsthand in crisis ranging from car crashes to service outages. If nobody has a definition of success in these situations, then everybody is going to be chasing a soccerball like a group of toddlers and nobody is going to score a goal.