Richard Rumelt
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Richard Post Rumelt (born November 10, 1942) is an American emeritus professor at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
Anderson School of Management. He joined the school in 1976 from
Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...
.


Academic career

Richard Rumelt earned
Bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...
and
Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...
of Science degrees in
Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from
UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
. He worked as a systems design engineer at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...
in 1963–65. He received his doctorate from the Harvard Business School in 1972 and joined the Harvard Business School faculty as an assistant professor. On leave from HBS, he helped found and teach at the Iran Center for Management Studies during 1972–74. In 1976 he joined the faculty of Management at the UCLA school of business. In 1993 he was appointed to the Harry and Elsa Kunin Chair in Business and Society. During 1993-96 he taught at
INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...
(France), where he held the Shell Chair in Management. Rumelt was a founding member of the Strategic Management Society and served as its president in 1995–98.


Publications

Rumelt is noted for having made several key contributions to the study of business and corporate strategy. His 1974 study of diversification strategy inaugurated a stream of work on the performance implications of diversification. In 1980, Rumelt developed a method of evaluating business strategy in which he observed that almost all successful business strategies utilise four common characteristics: *Consonance - an adaptive response to the business's environment *Consistency - avoiding mutually inconsistent goals and policies *Pursuit of a
competitive advantage In business, a competitive advantage is an attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors. A competitive advantage may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skille ...
*Feasibility in how the resources available to the business are utilised. A joint 1982 paper co-written with Steven Lippman showed how classical industrial organization results—profitability being related to concentration and to market share—could arise under perfect competition if there was uncertainty in the sources of efficiency. This result was key in the development of the "resource-based view" of strategic success. Rumelt's 1991 empirical follow-on (''How Much Does Industry Matter?'') showed that most of the dispersion of profit rates in the economy was between business units rather than between industries. His 2011 book, ''Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters'', redefined strategy as a form of problem solving. It was chosen one of six finalists for the Financial Times & Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award for 2011. His book ''The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists'' was published in 2022; it was selected as one of the top business books of 2022 by the
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
and by the Globe & Mail. ''Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters'' outlines Rumelt's views on the nature of effective strategy. He argues that good strategy involves identifying key facts and problems and then coordinating a focused response. Examples include the
Battle of Cannae The Battle of Cannae (; ) was a key engagement of the Second Punic War between the Roman Republic and Ancient Carthage, Carthage, fought on 2 August 216 BC near the ancient village of Cannae in Apulia, southeast Italy. The Carthaginians and ...
, where
Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...
used a large-scale troop maneuver to negate the Romans' numerical advantage, and
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
' second tenure as
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
's CEO, where he streamlined product lines to position Apple as a niche computer provider while awaiting new opportunities. However, Rumelt cautions against coordination without purpose, as it can lead to reduced specialization. In contrast, he characterizes bad strategy as often consisting of fluff, excessively complex language, and the conflation of goal-setting with strategy. Other publications include: * Rumelt, R. 1974. Strategy, Structure, and Economic Performance, Harvard Business School Press. *Lippman, S. and Rumelt R . 1982. Uncertain Imitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency Under Competition, The Bell Journal of Economics *Rumelt, R. 1991. How Much Does Industry Matter?, Strategic Management Journal. *Rumelt, R., Schendel, D., and Teece, D. 1994. Fundamental Issues In Strategy, Harvard Business School Press *Rumelt, R.P., 1991. How Much Does Industry Matter?. Strategic Management Journal, pp. 167–185. * Rumelt, R., 2011. The Perils of Bad Strategy. McKinsey Quarterly, 1(3). For more information se
www.thecruxbook.com/press


Personal life

Rumelt is married to Kate Rumelt; the couple enjoys hiking and skiing. They live in
Boise, Idaho Boise ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Idaho, most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Loca ...
.


References


External links


Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: the difference and why it matters
video)
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters
website)
Fundamental Issues In Strategy
Amazon) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rumelt, Richard Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard Business School alumni UCLA Anderson School of Management faculty 21st-century American economists 1942 births