Operating Principle

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A Good Strategy Has a Diagnosis, Not a List of Goals

A Good Strategy Has a Diagnosis, Not a List of Goals

A Good Strategy Has a Diagnosis, Not a List of Goals

If your strategy is a set of targets and aspirations, you don’t have a strategy—you have a wish list.

If your strategy is a set of targets and aspirations, you don’t have a strategy—you have a wish list.

If your strategy is a set of targets and aspirations, you don’t have a strategy—you have a wish list.

Real strategy starts with a diagnosis of the critical challenge, then a guiding policy, then coherent action.

Real strategy starts with a diagnosis of the critical challenge, then a guiding policy, then coherent action.

Real strategy starts with a diagnosis of the critical challenge, then a guiding policy, then coherent action.

Rumelt’s kernel of good strategy is an honest diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent actions. Bad strategy substitutes ambition for analysis, listing desired outcomes as if naming them were a plan. A real strategy makes some paths obviously wrong before you try them.

Operating Question

What trade-off or assumption must be made explicit here?

What trade-off or assumption must be made explicit here?

What trade-off or assumption must be made explicit here?

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Why It Matters

Real strategy starts with a diagnosis of the critical challenge, then a guiding policy, then coherent action.

Supporting Evidence

Richard Rumelt, “Good Strategy Bad Strategy”.

Research Notes

Treat as an operating heuristic and assess the applicable context, limits, and counterarguments.

Practical Actions

Write the obstacle in one sentence; test whether the plan rules out options; reject goal-only documents.