Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The difference and why it matters

by Richard P. Rumelt

I came to see skills at coordination as if they were rungs on a ladder, with higher rungs in reach only when the lower rungs had been attained. Indeed, PJ’s concept of a layering of skills explains why some organizations can concentrate on issues that others cannot. This understanding has helped shape the advice I offer clients. For example, when I work with a small start-up company, their problems often revolve around coordinating engineering, marketing, and distribution. Asking the CEO of such a firm to concentrate on opening offices in Europe may be pointless, because the company has not yet mastered the basics of “flying” the business.