Good Strategy Framework

A framework for evaluating, designing, and stress-testing strategies. Based on Richard Rumelt's "Good Strategy Bad Strategy" and enriched with Michael Porter's "What Is Strategy?" — the definitive works on distinguishing real strategy from the fluff that passes for it. Includes a built-in pre-mortem stress test.

Core Principle

Strategy is not a goal. Strategy is a coherent response to a challenge. Most organizations confuse strategy with ambition ("be the market leader"), goals ("grow 30% YoY"), or a list of priorities ("our strategic priorities are..."). None of these are strategy. A strategy is a diagnosis of the situation, a guiding policy for dealing with it, and a set of coherent actions designed to carry out the policy.

Porter adds a critical insight: Strategy is about choosing what NOT to do. The essence of strategy is choosing a set of activities that are different from competitors. Operational effectiveness (doing the same things better) is not strategy. Competitive advantage comes from performing different activities or performing similar activities in different ways.

Scoring

Goal: 10/10. When evaluating a strategy, rate it 0-10: