Richard Rumelt Speaks on Strategy at Safety 2013 Tuesday General Session

Safety 2013’s Wednesday Opening Session featured Richard Rumelt, a former engineer and current professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management. His discussion on “Good Strategy/Bad Strategy,” addressed the problems with many so-called strategies and how to formulate valid ones.

Rumelt presented an honest approach to the idea of strategies, saying upfront that strategy is at the heart of organizational success. “A strategy is a coherent mix of policy and action designed to surmount a high-stakes challenge,” he said, and reminded the audience of a few times throughout his presentation. It’s about focusing your resources to gain an objective.

With the clear definition mind, Rumelt went on to plainly state that wishful thinking is not strategy. “Writing down candy phrases about how great the world would be . . .” and calling it a strategy doesn’t work. He encouraged attendees to really look at some so-called strategies and not be ashamed to think that “fluff” is nonsense. He provided four keys to recognizing bad strategies: when it’s all about performance goals; when it’s all fluff; when there is no diagnosis; when it’s a “dog’s dinner” (when it includes everything that everyone suggests).

Rumelt assured the crowd that a good strategy has diagnosis, pointing out that you can’t solve a problem if you haven’t defined it. It also has coherent action and a guiding policy that clearly states how you are going to approach it. Simplifying your action space allows you to know where you’re going. In addition, a good strategy has a logical structure of problem solving. Breaking out of bad strategies and using the steps to create good ones will help safety professionals reach their business goals. 

Safety 2013's Wednesday General Session was sponsored by SafeStart.