I've been (slowly) reading Richard Rumelt's new book, The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists. One of the themes of the book—extending on his previous book Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters— is that a coherent strategy is:
Thanks for the article. I really liked 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy' and learn about this new one from your article here.
One of the challenges I've experienced in my career as a Product leader is being asked to create a "Product Strategy" without there being a clear company-wide strategy. Do you think this is feasible/sensible?
Holy cow—I see that so much! Start-up founders largely hate strategy. Strategy is constraining. It denies you the right to jump on any opportunity that comes along —and in so doing, pull out the rug from under your product team, sales team, etc. But, even though they don’t want to make the hard choices required by a strategy, they want you, the product manager, to do so.
The answer is yes, you can. But it’s a really ass-backwards way to run an enterprise.
Hi John, question, I have a product team who wants to have their own strategy for each of the parts of the product/experience they work on, does that sound right ? or is it best just to have a purpose that aligns to the top line strategy set by execs ?
My perspective -- both need to be true. Ideally that product team can point to an overarching strategy for the product/portfolio, and then product teams take that cascade and translate it/customize it to their specific part of the map. In isolation, if every team creates and executes on their own vision, it'll be at the expense of a holistic and successful user experience.
Thank you Graham, if I understand you correctly, i believe that is what we are trying to do , but it's a valid point around not turning something that should translate to something isolated.
One of the key themes the book emphasizes is the importance of strategy alignment. For those seeking to deepen their understanding of strategic thinking, Rumelt's book is a must-read, offering practical guidance and actionable insights. In addition, readers can explore his concepts more deeply by purchasing a literary analysis at https://exclusivethesis.com/write-my-literary-analysis-for-me/ of his works, which can provide a deeper understanding of his strategic theories and their application.
I’ve never heard anyone explicitly say that strategy doesn’t matter-but goals, OKRs, etc do. But, I’ve certainly seen plenty of companies behave as though that’s true….
Recently, I was brought in by a CEO who had been hired to replace the Founder. Immediately before hiring me he rolled out OKRs and KPI‘s, along with a dashboard. He then assigned the entire org to develop their department and individual KPI‘s on the back of those.
But, there was no strategy anywhere to be found (except perhaps in his head). There was no known differentiator, no articulation of *how* they planned to achieve their vey ambitious goals (nor any evidence they could, based on prior performance ).
Not coincidentally, this CEO was a former head of strategy from another Series C start up. I thought that given his background in strategy, he of all people would understand why he needed to have one and articulate it to contextualize the metrics. Since a significant part of my remit strategy consulting, I asked. He basically said that the goals, OKRs and KPI‘s *were* the strategy. I was mystified.
Ultimately, I convinced him that there would need to be a clearer context if he wanted his teams and individuals to understand and align themselves to this metric structure. But I had never heard anyone articulate what you describe as being a common belief: That strategy is irrelevant, and only the goals and metrics matter. Apparently, I have been living under a rock…..you are so right.
Exactly right! This article hit home for me. You have described all differences between implicit and explicit strategy and clears many possible confusions from reader's mind like me. Your article also helps me to prepare a great strategy for my startup business. Strategy is the main key of every business. Having a great strategy is must for every business either its a small startup or a well established business.
Thanks for the article. I really liked 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy' and learn about this new one from your article here.
One of the challenges I've experienced in my career as a Product leader is being asked to create a "Product Strategy" without there being a clear company-wide strategy. Do you think this is feasible/sensible?
Holy cow—I see that so much! Start-up founders largely hate strategy. Strategy is constraining. It denies you the right to jump on any opportunity that comes along —and in so doing, pull out the rug from under your product team, sales team, etc. But, even though they don’t want to make the hard choices required by a strategy, they want you, the product manager, to do so.
The answer is yes, you can. But it’s a really ass-backwards way to run an enterprise.
Hi John, question, I have a product team who wants to have their own strategy for each of the parts of the product/experience they work on, does that sound right ? or is it best just to have a purpose that aligns to the top line strategy set by execs ?
Thanks for the amazing posts
My perspective -- both need to be true. Ideally that product team can point to an overarching strategy for the product/portfolio, and then product teams take that cascade and translate it/customize it to their specific part of the map. In isolation, if every team creates and executes on their own vision, it'll be at the expense of a holistic and successful user experience.
Thank you Graham, if I understand you correctly, i believe that is what we are trying to do , but it's a valid point around not turning something that should translate to something isolated.
Great read John! I really appreciate everything you do.
One of the key themes the book emphasizes is the importance of strategy alignment. For those seeking to deepen their understanding of strategic thinking, Rumelt's book is a must-read, offering practical guidance and actionable insights. In addition, readers can explore his concepts more deeply by purchasing a literary analysis at https://exclusivethesis.com/write-my-literary-analysis-for-me/ of his works, which can provide a deeper understanding of his strategic theories and their application.
I’ve never heard anyone explicitly say that strategy doesn’t matter-but goals, OKRs, etc do. But, I’ve certainly seen plenty of companies behave as though that’s true….
Recently, I was brought in by a CEO who had been hired to replace the Founder. Immediately before hiring me he rolled out OKRs and KPI‘s, along with a dashboard. He then assigned the entire org to develop their department and individual KPI‘s on the back of those.
But, there was no strategy anywhere to be found (except perhaps in his head). There was no known differentiator, no articulation of *how* they planned to achieve their vey ambitious goals (nor any evidence they could, based on prior performance ).
Not coincidentally, this CEO was a former head of strategy from another Series C start up. I thought that given his background in strategy, he of all people would understand why he needed to have one and articulate it to contextualize the metrics. Since a significant part of my remit strategy consulting, I asked. He basically said that the goals, OKRs and KPI‘s *were* the strategy. I was mystified.
Ultimately, I convinced him that there would need to be a clearer context if he wanted his teams and individuals to understand and align themselves to this metric structure. But I had never heard anyone articulate what you describe as being a common belief: That strategy is irrelevant, and only the goals and metrics matter. Apparently, I have been living under a rock…..you are so right.
Exactly right! This article hit home for me. You have described all differences between implicit and explicit strategy and clears many possible confusions from reader's mind like me. Your article also helps me to prepare a great strategy for my startup business. Strategy is the main key of every business. Having a great strategy is must for every business either its a small startup or a well established business.
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Thanks for this article. It's a good reminder that strategy is nothing without the best implementation of it and what the common pitfalls are.