Good Strategy/Bad Strategy - Book Report/Review Example

Secondly, the author advocates coming up with policies that will cost the company less and produce more results (Chapter 3). Lastly, the work emphasizes on coordinated efforts to implement the policies that are defined by the pool of managers (Chapter 3). It is, therefore, arguable that the central theme of Rumelt’s work revolves around coming up with concrete strategies that will steer the company towards success, as well as have an added advantage over other companies. The managers have been charged with the sole responsibility of ensuring that the best strategies are developed as well as implemented.

This is referred to as the power of good strategies whilst the bad strategies are ones that only focus on financial goals, motivation statements amongst others without focusing on the practicality of implementing the same. Central pillars – Define and discuss three major learning outcomes Three major learning outcomes from the work include; To describe the Kernel of Good Strategy To identifying why discovering power is good strategy To identify when a bad strategy has been implemented The Kernel of Good Strategy Rumelt argues that all good strategies- kernel- must embrace diagnosis, guiding course of action, and logical actions (Chapter 1).

Diagnosis involves simplifying the challenges in the company (Chapter 1). For instance, the author gives an example of embracing technology from suppliers and hardware which uses skills that allow easy data handling. The author also advocates for adopting the guiding policy is the best approach to handle the challenges facing the organization (Chapter 1). Through the guiding policy, the managers are ale to give the rules that govern the company and how the business challenges will be handled.

The next step that follows the guiding policy, as argued by Rumelt, is acting towards implementing the guiding policies (Part II). This, the author cautions and reminds the managers, lest they come up with policies that are rarely put into practice but simply put on paper (Part II).This is based on the fact that a lot of confusion between the guiding policy and the strategies greatly differ. Discovering power In the work, Rumelt describes the sources of power and gives examples of these sources that range from focus, leverage, growth to inertia (Chapter 2).

However, it is the role of the managers to discern the present type of power and how to manipulate the same for the good of the organization. The author is confident in the fact that in the event that the managers discover the type of power available, they are ale to apply it in the best way in the organization (Chapter 2). The manager will then manipulate the outcomes of these sources of power to the advantage of the company at large. Bad strategy It is vital for the manager to be aware of when a bad strategy has been implemented or not (Chapter 3).

This can only be done if the manager is aware of the nature of the challenges in the organization and how they should be handled. Appropriate strategies involve good response from the entire organization. On the other hand, if the entire organization reacts against the decisions made by the managers, then this is a clue that the strategies adopted are simply poor strategies. The policies implemented should, therefore,