There are, conservatively, 300 gazillion books published every year. No one has the time to list them, let alone read them or review them. That’s a problem because there’s a lot of value in many books you may not hear about because of the clutter. 

“Short Takes” is my humble effort to cut through the clutter and highlight business books that might be perfect for your next read. Here’s why I think The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists by Richard Rumelt might be a good choice for you.

Rumelt’s last book was Good Strategy/Bad Strategy. My friend Art Petty recommended it to me citing Rumelt’s Kernel of Strategy as: “the most powerful, supple approach for creating clarity and coherence on strategy I’ve yet encountered.”

That was good enough for me. I read Rumelt’s book. I thought it was excellent. I really like the way he uses stories and real-world examples to make his ideas clear and usable.

That’s enough to lead me to think that his new book, The Crux, will be insightful, accessible, and practical. Here are pointers to two excellent early reviews of the book.

From Bob Morris: A Review of The Crux

“To what does the title of this book refer? According to Richard Rumelt, a crux is ‘the one challenge that both is critical and appears to be solvable. This narrowing down [process to identify the crux] is the source of much of the strategist’s power, as focus remains the cornerstone of strategy.’”

From Mark P. McDonald: The Crux, Strategy is dead, long live True Strategy

“The Crux is hands down the best and most practical book I have read in the past two years.  Richard Rumelt is a proven leader in creating effective strategies and this book helps you understand what strategy really is. Highly Recommended.”