Question

Discuss Rumelt’s evaluation method. Identify each of the criteria and discuss why each are important. Identify and discuss potential conflicts between the criteria. Provide          examples.

Answer 1

The Rumelt evaluation method – named for its creator, Richard Rumelt of the UCLA Anderson School of Management – attempts to simply the process using four criteria to assess whether a strategy is efficient, effective and aligned with a business's mission and goals.

Richard Rumelt developed four criteria for evaluating strategies:
Consistency
    Are the external strategies consistent with (supported by) the various internal aspects of the organization? You must examine all the various functional and internal management strategies employed by the organization and compare them with the external business strategy.
Consonance
    Are the strategies in agreement with the various external trends (and sets of trends) in the environment? To answer this questions, you need to look at all the major trends that impact the selected strategy - both positively and negatively.
Feasibility
    Is the strategy reasonable in terms of the organization's resources?

·         Money and capital

·         Management, professional, and technical resources

·         Time span

Advantage
    Does the strategy create and/or maintain a competitive advantage?

·         Resources

·         Skills

·         Position

The conflict between structures, roles, systems is the symptoms that stem out of the lack of the strategic inconsistency.

For example, examine the strategy from a financial perspective and identify its limitations. Assess staffing in terms of requirements, knowledge and the skill set required to achieve long-term strategy goals.