A list of Acronyms is not a strategy…

3 min readOct 24, 2024

I feel like books can be like romantic partners, some you don’t get along with and leave early… ‘good strategy, bad strategy’ was one of these.

But my fellow Head of Jaskiran Kang liked it so much I thought, ok maybe it’s not so bad, il give it another go…..

And sometimes, just sometimes, that second try, in different context and time of your life aligns the stars and ‘ping’ that reading magic fits perfectly

Ok to the point — rereading Good Strategy Bad Strategy, by Richard Rumelt, a book about…. You guessed it.. strategy, it’s to the point and actionable, bringing things down to the nuts and bolts…

2 people one saying lets see the strategy clive — clive has a random list — Clives Adventures in Strategy 1 of 10

The peer worker points out its a list, clive asks if it inc a dog instead of a cat would that be better — Clives Adventures in Strategy 2of 10

Here’s a lil excerpt

“Strategy is about how an organization will move forward. Doing strategy is figuring out how to advance the organization’s interests.

Of course, a leader can set goals and delegate to others the job of figuring out what to do. But that is not strategy. If that is how the organization runs, let’s skip the spin and be honest — call it goal setting.

The purpose of this book is to wake you up to the dramatic differences between good strategy and bad strategy and to give you a leg up toward crafting good strategies.

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.

The guiding policy specifies the approach to dealing with the obstacles called out in the diagnosis. It is like a signpost, marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip.

Coherent actions are feasible coordinated policies, resource commitments, and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy.’

Back to Clive…