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Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters
 
 

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters [Kindle Edition]

Richard Rumelt
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Review

"'This is the first book on strategy I have read that I have found difficult to put down.' (John Kay, London Business School)"

Book Description

The long-awaited magnum opus from 'strategy's strategist'

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 986 KB
  • Print Length: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Profile Books (9 Jun 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005331U7Q
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #13,637 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
50 of 51 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've been very impressed with this book and would be happy to recommend it to anybody who would like to define a real strategy.

By that I mean, as the book explains, not just churning out boilerplate wishful-thinking Vision Statements and Financial Projections, but a serious approach to creating a methodical and actionable strategy to overcome a seemingly infinite number of potential problems faced in business and every other sphere of life where strategic thought is required.

As a small business owner I have found this book to be invaluable for generating ideas and direction for my business efforts.

Another point that should be mentioned is to do with credibility. If you needed any further convincing that this book is a worthwhile read, buried a third of the way into the book is the fact that the author is a former NASA engineer, as well as a long-time researcher of strategy. He has interviewed many top level strategists, including the likes of Steve Jobs. The information shared is, by all accounts, very well founded.

Highly recommended.
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By Robert Morris TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
As the title of this review correctly indicates, Richard Rumelt is convinced (and I agree) that a good strategy can provides both a timely head's up to imminent challenges and guidance when preparing to respond effectively to them. With surgical skill and (to my delight) a light touch, he explains what a good strategy is. In fact, he also explains what is and isn't a strategy, good or bad. Moreover, he cites dozens of real-world examples to illustrate which strategies succeed, which fail, and why. Both good and bad strategies are a result of a process so Rumelt correctly examines both good and bad processes, each of which involves a sequence of decisions. Thus a good strategy is the result of a process of correct decisions; a bad strategy is the result of a process of incorrect decisions.

One of Rumelt's valuable insights suggests that a decision is correct if (huge IF) it is appropriate to the given needs, interests, resources, and objectives. This is what Peter Drucker had in mind (in 1963) when observing, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Many years later, Michael Porter made essentially the same point when suggesting that "the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." Rumelt's purpose in the book is to awaken his reader "to the dramatic differences between good strategy and bad strategy and to give [his reader] a leg up toward crafting good strategies." Rumelt nails the "what," devoting most of his attention to the "how" and "why."

Here is a partial list of the real-world situations that Rumelt rigorously examines:

o How Steve Jobs saved Apple
o General Schwarzkopf's strategy in Desert Storm
o Discovering Wal-Mart's secret
o How blue-sky objectives miss the mark
o Pivot points at 7-Eleven and the Brandenburg Gate

Note: More about "pivot points' later

o Why Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon was a proximate and strategic objective
o [How] Hannibal defeats the Roman army in 216 B.C.
o What bricklaying teaches us about deepening advantage
o Deduction is enough only if you know everything worth knowing
o The worst industry structure imaginable

These and other mini-case studies reveal why strategy is, like a scientific hypothesis, "an educated prediction of how the world works. The ultimate worth of a strategy is determined by its success, not its acceptability to a council of philosophers or a board of editors. Good strategy work is necessarily empirical and pragmatic. Especially in business, whatever grand notions a person may have about the products or services the world might need, or about human behavior, or about how organizations should be managed, what does not actually `work' cannot long endure." Amen.

With regard to "pivot points," they magnify impact of an effort. "It is s natural or created imbalance in a situation, a place where a relatively small adjustment can unleash much larger pent-up forces." For example, in the business world, a strategic thinker "senses such imbalances in pent-up demand that has yet to be fulfilled or in a robust competence developed in one context that can be applied to good effect in another." In m y opinion, pivot points seem to be first cousins to Michael Kami's trigger points, Andy Grove's inflection points, and Malcolm Gladwell's tipping points. Obviously, a good strategy takes full advantage of every opportunity that pivot points offer.

Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out Walter Kiechel III's The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear your head 25 Jun 2011
Format:Hardcover
I'm not exaggerating when I say that reading this book made me think more clearly.

The author describes what strategy IS, and describes how to distinguish good from bad. It's the kind of stuff that's obvious - but only AFTER you've had it pointed it out to you.

He goes into a clear breakdown of what makes bad strategy (wishful thinking, not understanding the problem, etc.) and good strategy (knowing what the problem is, actionable etc.). The tips on how to detect bad strategy are worth reading. One of them is to watch out for "fluff" --- I love this definition of cloud computing from an EU report: "an elastic execution environment of resources involving multiple stakeholders and providing a metered service at multiple granularities for a specified level of quality-of-service". (In case you wondered what your EU taxes were being spent on).

It's easy reading and quite short, you can probably read most of it on a 2 hour flight, and it's worth the time; really recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of the strategic process.
I really enjoyed this book. It takes a high level view of good and bad strategy and the does and don'ts of the process. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Exiledowl
4.0 out of 5 stars solid and thorough if not inspiring
The book starts very well with good structures and common pitfalls. There are also a number of good real world examples showing good strategy in practice. Read more
Published 3 days ago by big_g_balham
3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly puzzled by the very high ratings this book has received
As with all self-help books there's not very much content and the process of finding interesting material takes a bit of time. Read more
Published 26 days ago by P. Bulmer
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Introduction to Strategy
If you had to start somewhere with reading about strategy this is a very good place to start. I've got several years of experience in government doing strategy and I've studied it... Read more
Published 29 days ago by J. Kemp
4.0 out of 5 stars Good start and finish, bad middle
The opening few chapters on the 3 key elements of good strategy are well worth going through. The final chapters, especially Global Crossing and 2008 global crash are essential... Read more
Published 1 month ago by S. Heptonstall
5.0 out of 5 stars Destined to become a classic?
Excellent book: a writer who knows his subject well and covers it in an interesting way shedding new light on an old subject.
Published 1 month ago by Graham Hill
3.0 out of 5 stars Worth a quick skim
Like a lot of these types of books the real content is rather thin. This is beefed up with lots of retrospective examples used to prove the points being made. Read more
Published 1 month ago by David
5.0 out of 5 stars Plenty of food for thought
There are many useful ideas in this book - which can be applied to any organisation. I was especially pleased to see this perspective on 'vision' and 'mission statements', as dpi... Read more
Published 1 month ago by J R
4.0 out of 5 stars A hard, but good read
I noticed that the book punishes you immediately for any lapse in concentration, but despite this it is a very good read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Honkanen Ossi T
5.0 out of 5 stars well written, timely advice
I bought this book based on the good customer reviews and a sense that my business strategies need improving. Read more
Published 2 months ago by R. J. de Bulat
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
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. &quote;
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If you fail to identify and analyze the obstacles, you don’t have a strategy. Instead, you have either a stretch goal, a budget, or a list of things you wish would happen. &quote;
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&quote;
A good strategy has an essential logical structure that I call the kernel. The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. &quote;
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