10 Rules for Judging Good Strategy
- Good strategy drives performance. It strengthens competitive advantage. It improves customer preference and investor confidence.
- Good strategy accentuates the positive. It is constructive. It is not disruptive for the sake of being disruptive. It builds on a company’s historic equities, and optimizes existing knowledge and resources.
- Good strategy is elegant. It is precise. There is attention to detail. It is lean, not cumbersome.
- Good strategy is realistic. It is achievable. It is grounded in market realities, rooted in fact.
- Good strategy is measurable. It is focused on results. Performance evaluations are built in.
- Good strategy tells the truth. It is grounded in the essential nature of a company, a product, a customer or a culture. It doesn’t over-promise or mislead.
- Good strategy is durable. It does not play on passing business or cultural trends. It takes the long-view. It is engineered to last, to be flexible and adaptable to changing competitive environments.
- Good strategy applies to all aspects of the business. It provides direction and focus. It informs decisions on product innovation and design, marketing, sales, merchandising, customer relations, investor relations and human resources.
- Good strategy works internally and externally. It inspires and creates expectations among employees as well as customers.
- Good strategy is as little strategy as possible. It is efficient. It is not overly complicated, laden with jargon, or bloated with filler.
