Good strategy, bad strategy (and why I love what I do)
I'm really immersed in reading Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. This is a book that came out in 2011 and, for me, that is a recent release (I lack the voracious biz book readership habits of some of my colleagues.) I prioritize experience over canned advice but when someone I respect recommends a book, I usually pick up a copy. Marty Cagan and Jim Morris both have both recommended it and that is enough for me.
Glad I found it -- I really like this book. The book feels like 33% therapy, 33% fist-pumping rock anthem singalong and 33% going to school. It articulates what years of sitting in strategy meetings, board meetings, planning meetings have taught me experientially… what is often called "strategy" can be a lot of hot air that inflates everyone and makes it seem like there is inspiring substance until someone, bravely, opens the reality door at the back of the room.
Rumelt articulates this beautifully as “bad strategy.”
He writes, “Strategy does not eliminate scarcity and its consequence — the necessity of choice. Strategy is scarcity’s child and to have a strategy, rather than vague aspirations, is to choose one path and eschew others. There is difficult psychological, political and organizational work in saying “no” to whole worlds of hopes, dreams and aspirations. When a strategy works, we tend to remember what was accomplished, not the possibilities that were painfully set aside.”
The “painfully set aside” bit is what makes strategy-making when it really counts some of the hardest leadership work in the world. And we tend to mythologize leaders who, in hindsight, have done it well (e.g. Steve Jobs below) and forget leaders who made really good strategy choices but ultimately still failed for reasons in or not in their control (no one controls the markets or pandemics or competition or timing).
Rumelt gives the example of Steve Jobs' return to Apple in 1997 and his stint as interim CEO to try to save the company from bankruptcy. Jobs came in and essentially let a lot of people down quickly. "He shrunk Apple to a scale and scope suitable to the reality of its being a niche producer in the highly competitive PC business. He cut Apple back to a core that could survive. . . Jobs cut all of the desktop models -- there were fifteen -- back to one. He cut all portable and handheld models back to one laptop. He completely cut out all of the printers and other peripherals. He cut development engineers. He cut software development. He cut distributors and cut out five of the company's six national retailers. . . He cut inventory by more than 80%. With a new web store he sold Apple's products directly to consumers, cutting out distributors and dealers. What is remarkable about Jobs's turnaround strategy for Apple is how much it was "Business 101" and yet how much of it was unanticipated." (Rumelt)
But this strategy of discipline and focused action -- which no doubt caused a lot of concern and disillusionment from his team, his board and the public-- didn't inspire at first. In fact, I’m sure it felt a lot like slash and burn. And, with a lot on the line for Apple and Jobs with long months of nail biting before things started to prove out, it was not a low stress time.
Which gets to the unpopular truth about strategy in this era of mythologizing successful strategy decisions and those who make them as though they were always bound for success. Sometimes (usually) good strategy will be really effing difficult — first in identifying good strategy to begin with (an art form and a lot of hard work) and second, in having the stomach to pull it off with humility, grace and a steady hand. The greater entrenched in status quo a company is (in John Wayne actor voice: "this is the way we do things around here"), the greater the pain will be to address the opportunities and threats that are weighing things down.
But when strategy is born from truthfully noticing the source of the organization’s deepest challenges and when practical plans are then formed to address those deep challenges no matter what the recoil factor of those around you — strategy is literal gold. That’s real strategy, not fluff. “Good strategy” as Rumelt calls it.
What experience (and this book) remind me: good strategy is bloody hard work and may or may not sound inspiring on the onset. It may upset a lot of people. But it will have the resounding thud of truth when you really hear it.
Good strategy does not guarantee good outcomes but good outcomes without good strategy are just pure luck.
Good strategy is camouflaged and blindingly obvious, both.
Good strategy is deeply practical and wildass creative, both.
Good strategy is the hardest work anyone in leadership is called to do. But it’s worthwhile work that is worthy of the seniority you hold if you’re the one lucky enough to be making the tough choices.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt speaks refreshing truth about the illusions of leadership vs real leadership and has been an invigorating read. I'm sure to reference Rumelt directly or indirectly in future as he articulates so much about why I became a consultant/free agent to help companies discover their deepest challenges and create a practical road to addressing them. Getting to help companies develop Good Strategy is the most inspiring work I can imagine and I’m humbled to be part of it.
