Richard Rumelt

Richard P. Rumelt is an American academic and author, celebrated for his substantial contributions to the field of business and corporate strategy. Born on November 10, 1942, in Washington, D.C., he earned both his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Early in his career, Rumelt worked as a systems design engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1963 to 1965. He later pursued a Doctorate in Business Administration at Harvard Business School, completing it in 1972. Following his doctorate, he served as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and contributed to the establishment of the Iran Center for Management Studies between 1972 and 1974. In 1976, Rumelt joined the faculty of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was appointed to the Harry and Elsa Kunin Chair in Business and Society in 1993. During 1993 to 1996, he taught at INSEAD in France, holding the Shell Chair in Management. A founding member of the Strategic Management Society, Rumelt served as its president from 1995 to 1998. His seminal works include Strategy, Structure, and Economic Performance (1974), Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters (2011), and The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists (2022). Now retired from university teaching, he resides in Boise, Idaho, with his wife, Kate, where he continues to write and consult on strategic management.

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