Richard Rumelt Keynote Speaker

Professor Emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management
Author of 'The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists' & 'Good Strategy/Bad Strategy'
Recognised among the top 20 thinkers around the world in strategy by Thinkers50

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Richard Rumelt's Biography

Richard Rumelt is one of the most influential thinkers on strategy and management. McKinsey called him “A giant in the field of strategy.”

Throughout his career, Richard has defined the cutting edge of strategy, developing the idea that companies focusing on core skills perform best and that superior performance is not a matter of being the in the right industry, but comes from a firm’s individual excellence.

He is the author of The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists and of Good Strategy/Bad Strategy. Richard’s description of Bad Strategy as empty rhetoric, a long lists of “priorities,” and goals without accompanying actions won him world-wide acclaim. His current concept of The Crux stresses the importance of working with challenges rather than wished-for outcomes. In particular, it asks that a business focus on the most important challenge it can actually resolve.

Richard is Professor Emeritus at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and was earlier on the faculty of the Harvard Business School.

He works with corporations around the world including AT&T, Shell, Telecom Italia, Kings College London, O-I Corp, The National Bank of Canada, Lukoil, Microsoft, HP, Apple, Commonwealth Bank, Intel, Medtronic, Redgate, TransAlta, and the US Army Special Operations Command.

The Thinkers50 organization recognised Richard as being among the top 20 thinkers around the world in strategy and has inducted him in their Hall of Fame.

Richard Rumelt's Speaking Topics

The Crux:

The concept of challenge-based strategy and the art of defining and dealing with the crux of the situation.

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy:

The concept of Bad Strategy, the “kernel” at the heart of every Good Strategy, and the source of power used in successful strategies.

Getting Strategy Right:

Too many organizations confuse strategy with goal-setting. Strategy is a form of problem-solving and the bedrock foundation of problem-solving is gaining a comprehension of the nature of the challenge being faced. The distractions on the road to doing strategy well are management by objectives, starting with goals, chasing quarterly earnings numbers, and organizational dysfunction.

Profitable Growth:

Value-creating growth is the secret sauce of firms that have become our common descriptions of corporate success. This talk explores the dos and don’ts for achieving profitable growth.