Richard Rumelt - The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists

Praise for
The Crux

The Crux shows why Richard Rumelt is a global authority on strategy. This new book takes you into real strategy situations ranging from Netflixs streaming business to the US militarys development of battle doctrine to a detailed walkthrough of a three-day strategy foundry. An immensely readable guide to one of the most difficult subjects: how to create a way forward when facing knotty challenges.

Andy D. Bryant, chairman of the board, Intel Corporation (201220)

In his powerful new book, Rumelt tells us strategy is not magic. But this book does manage to cast a spell. As a reader, I was drawn into the specific conundrums and a-ha or uh-oh moments in each story. As a strategy practitioner, I felt challenged and inspired to push myself to a higher level of thinking. Shifting us away from rote frameworks and feel-good prescriptions, Rumelt invites us into the company of great strategists where curiosity, creativity, and cunning confront gnarly situations by getting to the bottom of the real problem and leveraging our power to crack it. For any leader looking to deepen their grasp of strategic thinkingand put it into practicethis book full of new inspiration and practical ideas will accelerate your progress.

Chris Bradley, senior partner, McKinsey, and coauthor of Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick

Richard Rumelt is the thinker with the biggest impact on my career and the companies I have been with, making my work more enjoyable and catalysing the creation of wealth which is nothing short of astonishing. The Crux is a triumph, a big step forward in how to approach this most vital of topics. The concept of the crux now makes it much easier to come up with the right, workable, strategy. This is the book I will press into the hands of my people as the best way to make them strategists.

Simon Galbraith, CEO and cofounder, Redgate

In this powerful and practical book, Rumelt reminds us that real strategy isnt a process of setting financial goalsits an in-depth, no-holds-barred conversation about the real challenges facing the firm and the creativity required to find transformative solutions. Drawing on a range of intriguing examples, Rumelt shows us both how this can be done and the enormous benefits of doing it.

Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard University, and author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

Strategy was a meaningless concept for our business until we engaged Richard Rumelt. He helped us turn away from empty goals and fictitious views of an unknown future and instead turn towards figuring out the crux of the issue so that we could focus on the right set of actions. This is the only book youll need as a strategist if you are determined to build a focused and coherent strategy for your business.

Dawn Farrell, president and CEO, TransAlta (201221)

The Crux delivers. Rumelt is at the top of his game, masterfully breaking down how to think about strategy, diagnose challenges, and put coherent solutions into action. I experienced firsthand how his concept of addressable strategic challenge was invaluable for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Lieutenant General (ret.) Robert P. Ashley Jr., director, Defense Intelligence Agency (201720)

Amidst all the vacuous talk of business purpose, Rumelt gets to the crux. Another triumph from the most insightfuland entertainingcommentator on strategy writing today.

Sir John Kay, London School of Economics, author of Other Peoples Money and Obliquity

Essential reading if you want to cut through the fog of what it takes to build and drive a successful business. The deep insight of The Crux lays out a road map of first getting to a deep and clear diagnosis of your situation, then [building] a clear approach and direction to be followed by a set of actions. The Crux is your guide to become a successful leader and strategist with impact.

Essa Al-Saleh, CEO, Volta Trucks

Few have been as successful at integrating strategic management scholarship and practice as Richard Rumelt. In this book, he develops insights and ideas about strategy that are at once inspiring and actionable. He challenges many of our established assumptions about strategy, but also gives us a path forward to help identify and address the central strategic challenges facing real firms.

Jay B. Barney, former editor in chief, Academy of Management Review, and presidential professor of strategic management, Eccles School of Business, the University of Utah

The Crux dissipates fog around what strategy is all about and establishes clarity. It forces strategists to reflect deeply on the issues that really matter and where strategic thinking and resources need to be deployed to succeed. In an increasingly complex world and an overflow of not-always-pertinent information that at times can be confusing, The Crux is refreshing and challenging. A must-read.

Francesco Starace, CEO and general manager, Enel Group

The German poet Friedrich Hlderlin once said, but where the danger grows, also grows the saving power. This is what Richard Rumelt invites us to discover in this inspirational book. On the way to the summit, the crux is the point at which we either collapse and give up, ora tipping point that will lead us to the next challenge. And this is about strategy, an ongoing process of identifying critical challenges and deciding what actions to take. Richard Rumelts book is both a provocation and an invitation to find the crux and take decisive action accordingly.

Tobias Martinez Gimeno, CEO, Cellnex Telecom

How Leaders Become Strategists

Richard Rumelt

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Profile Books Ltd

29 Cloth Fair

London

EC1A 7JQ

www.profilebooks.com

First published in the United States of America in 2022 by Public Affairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Copyright Richard Rumelt, 2022

Print book interior design by Trish Wilkinson

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78816 950 9

eISBN 978 1 78283 922 4

For my Kate,
who is the best thing that ever happened to me

The Roof of the Dogs Ass

When I lived in Fontainebleau, France, I would go for noon walks in the nearby forest. Old and deep, it was the hunting grounds of French kings for five hundred years. Perhaps a hundred square miles in extent, it is now crossed by paths frequented by hikers, runners, and bicyclers. Most of the students from INSEAD, the graduate business school located in Fontainebleau, walk or picnic in the forest, but few seem to know it contains rock outcroppings that attract the best boulder climbers from all over the world.

On my walks I would sometimes pass the boulder route known as Le Toit du Cul de Chien (The Roof of the Dogs Ass). It is one of the finest sandstone boulder problems in the world. Standing at its base, I see a smooth twelve-foot face capped by a horizontal roof that extends out over me for about four feet. Above the roof is another vertical section leading to the top. I try a tiny foothold, then another, then slide down two feet to the ground.