Richard Rumelt

Good strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say no to a wide variety of actions and interests. Strategy is at least as much about what an organization does not do as it is about what it does

Instead of spending our income on buying art, we could transform the subject. The Getty would begin to build a complete digital catalog of all art, including dance, song, and textiles. It would develop programs to educate art teachers and host advanced research on art and society. The Getty would host the best conservation talent in the world and develop new methods of conserving and restoration. In this way, I decided, we would have an impact far beyond simply putting art on display.

From a psychological perspective, there can be returns to focus or concentration when people ignore signals below a certain threshold (called a “salience effect” in psychology) or when they believe in momentum—that success leads to success. In either case, the strategist can increase the perceived effectiveness of action by focusing effort on targets that will catch attention and sway opinion. It may, for example, have more impact on public opinion to completely turn around two schools than to make a 2 percent improvement in two hundred schools. In turn, peoples’ perceptions of efficacy affect their willingness to support and take part in further actions.