strategy

strategy

Been on a book binge (I do this relatively often within categories) on strategy (e.g., good strategy / bad strategy, playing to win, good to great, etc). The one thing thing that struck me is that all these books in common have examples of where some company did the thing they recommended and became great, or excellent, or lead the field, etc. Owing to the fact that many of these books were published quite a few years ago, many of those examples in 2024, are, in fact, in hindsight, quite bad (e.g., Circuit City being used as an exemplary example of a company that deployed a successful strategy). So, some general musings so far:

• A good strategy appears to confer advantages to a company when executed properly, or successfully, or what have you;
• As it is with humans, in the long run all companies are dead, and such deaths are often not only inevitable, but too quick for any strategy to mitigate;
• Strategies, then, must be mindful of this balance of short- and long-run consequences.

Actually, if one pushes the same metaphor with companies as it is with humans, one could draw a great deal of proper strategies for a long and well-lived life for a company. But only if you assume that metaphor does hold, which I am more inclined to believe than not.