Harmony Internal - McKinsey

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AN ARTICLE A DAY, PICKED BY OUR EDITORS

Edited by Joyce Yoo
Editor, New York

What is strategy? Business leaders are often focused on ambitions and achieving results—and less about developing an action plan, according to Richard Rumelt, professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. But strategy is a journey that one takes by solving problems, he says. “It is how you overcome the obstacles that stand between where you are and what you want to achieve,” and the “gap between action and ambition is where most bad strategies come from.” Get into a problem-solving mindset and tune into a recent episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast to hear his conversation with McKinsey senior partner Yuval Atsmon and see how companies should reimage strategy amid a rapidly changing world.

Why bad strategy is a ‘social contagion’

Author and academic Richard Rumelt explains how to develop strategies that aim to solve problems rather than simply state ambitions.

Solve problems

Quote of the day

“What we find is when people hit the brakes, become short-termistic, and become very reactive, they’re no longer able to control their own destiny—be it as an organization, as a leader, or even as a parent.”

—Ari Wallach, founder and executive director of the futurist think tank Longpath Labs, on why it’s important to focus on the long term in a recent Author Talks interview

Chart of the day

Chart showcasing which various financial services are underserving Black communities

See today’s chart

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Why bad strategy is a ‘social contagion’

﻿“What we find is when people hit the brakes, become short-termistic, and become very reactive, they’re no longer able to control their own destiny—be it as an organization, as a leader, or even as a parent.”

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“What we find is when people hit the brakes, become short-termistic, and become very reactive, they’re no longer able to control their own destiny—be it as an organization, as a leader, or even as a parent.”