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I am about 90% convinced that Good Strategy Bad Strategy is a bad book. Two questions: 1. What is something actionable you took away from the book? 2. In a year’s time, circle back and ask: what changes did I make as a result of that takeaway?

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1. The essential problem-solving nature of strategy, and some practical tips on eg. value of writing (though Rumelt’s new book, Crux, has many more examples and practical steps) 2. The book helped me to create two very profitable & one moderately successful multi-year strategies

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and

(A colleague of mine who read it felt like you, that it made sense but lacked in how to put the ideas into practice. I read some online reviews that said the same, and I guess Crux is intended to fill the gap. I really like Crux, but liked the original book a lot too so YMMV.)

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*Adds Crux to my toread; fingers crossed that I don’t regret this* 🤪

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Ha! Crossing my fingers too – hope it works for you. I looked at your site (and signed up). You're rigorous & analytical. For sure, Crux is still a pop, broad-brush book. But Rumelt isn't trying to replace ops/accounting, just shaking up the way people approach tricky challenges.

Cedric Chin

@ejames_c

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@joepairman

Could you talk publicly about the positive effects of putting the book to practice, by the way? I take real world anecdotal accounts of successful application very seriously (context: commoncog.com/the-hierarchy-) so I'm open to changing my mind based on your story.

commoncog.com

The Hierarchy of Practical Evidence

A technique for evaluating non-scientific advice, from practitioners.

5:23 AM · Aug 21, 2022TweetDeck

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I can't go into much detail, but anyway a few thoughts here. Still think you might prefer Crux, though it's more practical and engineering-minded than intellectual/academic. (Rumelt has done academic writing too, but this, like GSBS, is popular style.)

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Joe Pairman

@joepairman

Aug 21

Thread about Rumelt's Good Strategy, Bad Strategy, which I find helpful but others including @ejames_c don't. Criticism tends to be that it's not practical enough, or maybe lacks intellectual rigour. (I'm retweeting not replying directly, so I can write longer then post together) twitter.com/ejames_c/statu…

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