Hi everyone, and welcome back to The Business Book Club—the place where we break down the best business and leadership books into short, sharp insights you can use right away.

Today’s book is one I’d recommend to every business leader, strategist, or decision-maker.

It’s called Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt—and spoiler alert: not all strategies are created equal.

In fact, most “strategies” aren’t really strategies at all. They're buzzwords. They’re fluff. They’re wish lists.

Rumelt cuts through the noise and shows us what real strategy looks like—and why so many organisations get it painfully wrong.

Body

The central idea of this book is simple but powerful:

Good strategy is about focus. Bad strategy is about pretending. Good strategy identifies a clear problem, applies thoughtful analysis, and delivers a plan of action that addresses the issue with precision.

Bad strategy, on the other hand, is vague. It confuses goals with strategy. It hides behind jargon. And worst of all, it avoids confronting the real challenges that need solving.

Rumelt’s mission? To help leaders stop playing pretend—and start making real, focused choices.

According to Rumelt, good strategy has three core elements:

1. A clear diagnosis. Good strategy begins by defining the problem. What’s really standing in the way? This isn’t surface-level thinking—it’s about digging deep, asking the hard questions, and getting specific.

2. A guiding policy. This is your high-level approach—the logic that links the problem to the solution. It’s not a list of tasks. It’s the “how” behind your “why.”

3. Coherent actions. These are the steps you take that align with your guiding policy. Everything connects. There’s no scattergun effort. Just tightly aligned execution that moves the needle.

Unfortunately, bad strategy is everywhere. Here are a few red flags Rumelt calls out:

1. Fluff: Fancy language with no substance.

2. Failure to face the problem: Strategies that ignore the elephant in the room.

3. Mistaking goals for strategy: “Be number one” isn’t a strategy. It’s a hope.

4. Lack of focus: Trying to do everything at once—without prioritisation.

Sound familiar?

Rumelt’s point is blunt: If you can’t explain what challenge you’re solving and how your actions address it, it’s not strategy—it’s theatre.

So how can we bring this thinking into our own work?

Start by asking three questions:

1. What is the real challenge we face? Don’t settle for surface symptoms. Get to the root.

2. What’s our core approach to solving it? What logic or leverage are we applying?

3. Are our actions aligned—or are we just being busy? Strip out anything that doesn’t directly support the strategy.

And this applies at every level—from business models to marketing campaigns to team goals.

One of Rumelt’s best-known examples is from Apple under Steve Jobs. When Jobs returned in 1997, Apple was struggling. They were making dozens of products—and losing money.

What did Jobs do?

He diagnosed the problem—too many unfocused products.
He introduced a guiding policy—focus on a small number of exceptional products.
And he aligned coherent action—cutting 70% of products and pouring resources into the iMac.

That’s real strategy in action: diagnose, guide, execute.

Closing

Here’s the bottom line: good strategy is hard—but it’s worth it.

It requires clarity, courage, and critical thinking. It forces you to make tough choices and let go of distractions. But when it’s done right—it changes everything.

So ask yourself:

Are you operating from a clear, focused strategy—or from a collection of vague ambitions?

That’s it for today’s episode of The Business Book Club.

If this got you thinking, give Good Strategy, Bad Strategy a read—or a re-read. And if you’re up for it, drop a comment with a strategy you’ve seen succeed—or fail.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time.