#pm_library: “Good Strategy / Bad Strategy”

This time I’d like to share my review of the most challenging book I added to my #pm_library — “Good Strategy / Bad Strategy” by Richard P. Rumelt.

This book will help Product Managers develop the “Strategic Impact” competency. The difficulty of this book is that the author illustrates the strategy with examples from different businesses or areas (e.g., politics or the art of war). The author goes into each of these areas in great detail. It’s easy to get lost, especially listening to an audiobook.

Nevertheless, after almost 12 hours of listening, I can distinguish a good strategy from a bad one. Here are the most critical points in my opinion:

- Strategy is not wishful thinking. The strategy should be developed after a thorough critical analysis of the data. When creating a strategy, you should study your organization’s market, competitors, resources, and constraints.

- The strategy should not be too general. Many companies mislead their mission, vision, or motto with strategy. It must give employees the proper guidelines to make decisions in one direction.

- Strategy is not a plan of action. Employees (at all levels) should use it as a guideline but still make their own decisions based on their expertise, judgment, and taking into consideration recent events.

Finally, a question for those who have already listened to “Good Strategy / Bad Strategy.” Did I need to include something with the above characterization of a good and a bad strategy? What was the most memorable for you?