Good Strategy, Bad Strategy | Richard Rumelt

**Richard Rumelt** (0:00)
Don't call it a strategy.

**Richard Rumelt** (0:02)
Call it an action agenda. It's huge numbers of people out there willing to sell you advice on mission and your vision and your values, all these things that have to be in place before you can have a strategy.

**Richard Rumelt** (0:17)
That's not true.

**Richard Rumelt** (0:18)
We begin to try to identify the one or two key challenges that can actually be addressed, and what are we gonna do about it? What are the coherent actions we're gonna do to take these on? Okay, we're gonna go after this, and here's the action steps we're gonna take to do that. That's essence of what you're doing when you're thinking strategically.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:42)
Today my guest is Richard Rumelt. Richard is an absolute legend in the world of strategy. It was such an honor to have him come on the podcast. He's the author of Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, which I've gifted to countless people who wanted to become more strategic. He's been mentioned so many times on this podcast. He's also the author of The Crux, his most recent book, which some consider his best book, which delves even further into his advice on how to craft a winning strategy. Richard was a long time professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management, was on the faculty of Harvard Business School, and he's consulted on strategy with companies like Microsoft, Apple and Intel, and also with government organizations like the US Army Special Ops Command and folks like Donald Rumsfeld. In our conversation, Richard shares the concrete elements that make a good strategy, why we'd be better off calling them action agendas rather than strategies, why every great strategy starts with a clear diagnosis of the biggest challenge that you face, also how to actually lay out a strategy, why organizational dynamics are often the biggest hindrance to winning strategies, and so much more. I could keep going, but let me just say we cover a lot of ground in this episode and Richard shares incredibly thoughtful and deep answers to each question. I am excited to bring you Richard Rumelt after a short word from our sponsors.
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