Good strategies or bad
strategies?
How successful businesses combine skills,
finance and innovation for competitive
advantage
Dr. Josh Siepel
Lecturer in Management
Science Policy Research Unit
This Session
Introduction
Thinking about strategy –
what it is (and isn’t)
What makes strategy ‘good’
and ‘bad’?
Strategic combinations of
skills
What is ‘strategic’?
Strategic vs Operational Decisions
Strategic decisions are:
•
•
•
Important
Involves significant commitment of resources
Not easily reversible
…Everything else is operational
Good strategy and
bad strategy
Bad strategies:
1) Fail to face the problem
Bad strategies:
1) Fail to face the problem
2) Mistake goals for strategy
Bad strategies:
1) Fail to face the problem
2) Mistake goals for
strategy
3) Have bad strategic
objectives
Bad strategies:
1) Fail to face the problem
2) Mistake goals for strategy
3) Have bad strategic
objectives
4) Have ‘fluff’ – superficial
abstraction
Why is there so
much bad strategy?
Ok… so what
makes for good
strategy?
Rumelt’s ‘kernels’ of good strategy:
1) A diagnosis
2) A guiding policy
3) Coherent actions
And… now for
something slightly
different – a view from
the academic coalface
Capabilities and
combinations of
skills: What
combinations of skills
help firms to grow?
Thank you!
Feel free to get in touch:
[email protected]