good-strategy-bad-strategy

To audit a business strategy, you apply Rumelt's Kernel to extract a crisp diagnosis, a guiding policy, and 3–5 coherent actions, detecting fluff and mistaking goals for strategy to ensure real strategic leverage.

Rumelt's Kernel evaluates strategic plans by verifying the presence of a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent actions. It maps actions to sources of power like leverage and dynamics, distinguishing focused strategy from unfocused objectives.

Check your roadmap for bad strategic objectives by running a hallmarks audit to detect fluff and failure to face the challenge, then validate whether 3–5 coherent actions reinforce a clear guiding policy based on a precise diagnosis.

Yes, you can use this strategy audit for product, craft, and business domains. It analyzes roadmaps and strategy decks by mapping actions to sources of power like inertia and design, delivering an actionable improvement plan.

The best way to map sources of power in a strategy deck is to attribute 3–5 coherent actions to the nine sources like focus, leverage, dynamics, and chain-link, ensuring actions align with classic case studies like Apple or Nvidia.

Your strategy document fails to face the challenge because it lacks a crisp diagnosis, mistaking goals for strategy or containing fluff. A kernel audit identifies this gap and provides a guiding policy with coherent actions for improvement.