Insight
A strategy is not a plan that must be followed rigidly — it is a hypothesis. Like a scientific hypothesis, it is an educated guess about what will work, based on your diagnosis of the situation. It should be tested, refined, or discarded as you gather evidence. The strategist's job is to form the best hypothesis possible and then design actions that test it.
Why This Matters
Treating strategy as hypothesis rather than commandment changes everything about execution. It makes pivoting rational rather than shameful. It encourages learning loops and evidence-gathering rather than blind commitment. It also lowers the stakes of being wrong — the point isn't to be right the first time, it's to learn faster than the competition.
Source Highlights
!Good Strategy Bad Strategy - Rumelt#^ref-35382
Related Concepts
experimentation | scientific-thinking | strategy | learning