Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters is a really good book. It discusses the pitfalls of forming strategy and teaches the reader how to think better about strategy.

Rumelt draws from a number of public company examples in order to make his points. In many cases, he played a consultant/advisory role to the managers making decisions. In other cases, I loved how he was not afraid to name and shame those he accuses of using bad strategy.

I also liked how the book was light on frameworks. Dumbing down strategy into five easy steps may make for great copy, but the good questions in life are rarely that easy to answer. Instead, the book is more about how to think about strategy in a consistent way.

I highly recommend Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters to anyone with interest in this topic.