The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists

The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists

  • Downloads:3482
  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2022-05-19 06:52:47
  • Update Date:2025-09-06
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Richard P. Rumelt
  • ISBN:1541701240
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

The paradigm-busting theory for doing strategy。

What passes for strategy in too many businesses, government agencies, and military operations is a toxic mix of wishful thinking and a jumble of incoherent policies。 Richard P。 Rumelt’s breakthrough concept is that leaders become effective strategists when they focus on challenges rather than goals, pinpointing the crux of their pivotal challenge—the aspect that is both surmountable and promises the greatest progress—and taking decisive, coherent action to overcome it。 

Rumelt defines the essence of the strategist’s skill with vivid storytelling, from how Elon Musk found the crux that propelled the success of SpaceX to how the American military came to grips with the weaknesses of its battle strategy。 Musk’s core challenge, for example, was rocket reusability。 His intense focus on the soft landing of SpaceX’s rockets enabled them to be used again—radically reducing the cost of putting a pound in orbit。 Musk’s strategy was not based on how value is created or how to position SpaceX in its industry。 It was a design foraction, the mental maneuver that focuses energy on what really made a difference through understanding the crux and creating an effective response that led to breakthrough。

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Reviews

Zack Rearick

I enthusiastically recommend Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters to anyone working in business strategy, consulting, or politics/campaigns。 It's an important book, highly relevant, and has really impacted my thinking on (1) what strategy actually is and (2) how to go about shaping good strategy。 I pre-ordered The Crux and was excited to have fresh material from Richard Rumelt, who I admire tremendously。 Unfortunately, I don't think this book contributes or accomplishes I enthusiastically recommend Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters to anyone working in business strategy, consulting, or politics/campaigns。 It's an important book, highly relevant, and has really impacted my thinking on (1) what strategy actually is and (2) how to go about shaping good strategy。 I pre-ordered The Crux and was excited to have fresh material from Richard Rumelt, who I admire tremendously。 Unfortunately, I don't think this book contributes or accomplishes much。 It's not "bad," per se — at least not relative to the sea of mediocre, filled-with-fluff, dime-a-dozen books in the business/leadership space — but it never approaches the high bar set by Good Strategy / Bad Strategy。 You can pass on this one。 Good Strategy / Bad Strategy is still a must-read。 Then, if you want more, I would look to books like Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them; Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers; or Emotion By Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike。 。。。more