Clara’s Verdict
Strategy is one of those words that gets tossed around boardrooms and business books until it’s been hollowed out of all meaning. Richard Rumelt is having none of it. Good Strategy/Bad Strategy is the most useful, and most bracingly honest, business audiobook I’ve listened to in years – and at nearly twelve hours narrated by Sean Runnette, it earns every minute of your attention.
What Rumelt does that almost no other strategist does is name the fraud. He calls it the “kernel” – the simple, coherent structure at the heart of any genuine strategy – and then systematically dismantles the fluffy vision statements, motivational slogans, and financial targets that most organisations dress up as strategy. It’s uncomfortable in the best way. If you’ve ever sat through a strategy away-day and wondered why nothing actually changes afterwards, this book will give you the vocabulary to explain precisely what went wrong.
About the Audiobook
Published by Random House Audio and running 11 hours and 49 minutes, this is Rumelt’s definitive work, drawing on decades as a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and consultant to governments, militaries, and corporations alike. The central argument is both simple and radical: a good strategy has a diagnosis of the challenge, a guiding policy, and a coherent set of actions. Everything else – goals, aspirations, visions – is not strategy.
Rumelt ranges from Apple’s near-death in the 1990s to the two Iraq wars, from Nvidia’s dominance in graphics chips to the 2007-08 financial crisis. He introduces nine sources of power – leverage, proximate objectives, chain-link systems, design, focus, growth, advantage, dynamics, and inertia – and shows how real organisations have harnessed or wasted them. The examples feel fresh even now; the underlying logic is timeless. What elevates this above typical business fare is Rumelt’s integration of economics, history, and psychology. He’s writing about power and human fallibility as much as about corporate strategy.
The Narration
Sean Runnette delivers the text with a measured, authoritative tone that suits Rumelt’s academic but readable prose perfectly. This isn’t a book that benefits from dramatic flair – the ideas carry their own weight – and Runnette understands that. He maintains consistent energy across nearly twelve hours, which is no small feat with dense material. The pacing allows you to follow complex case studies without rewinding. For a business book heavy on analysis, that clarity of delivery is essential, and Runnette provides it reliably throughout.
What Readers Say
With a rating of 4.5 out of 5, readers consistently highlight the same qualities I noticed. A UK reviewer who described themselves as a “Doctor and devoted Dad” rated it five stars and called it “essential reading for captains of industry, ministers, and generals,” noting the central point that “a good strategy is simple and honest, and must not be conflated with goals, aims or spurious targets.” Another UK reader gave four stars and wrote: “I now feel that I truly understand what strategy is and – arguably more importantly – what isn’t strategy.” A particularly enthusiastic reviewer called it “enticing and gripping” and singled out Rumelt’s template that exposes bad strategy – a list of mission, vision, and goal platitudes where you simply insert any company name – as “the funniest part.” The consensus is that this book changes how you think, not just what you know.
Who Should Listen?
Anyone in a leadership position – corporate, military, nonprofit, or public sector – will find this essential. But it’s equally valuable for anyone who wants to understand why the organisations around them behave as they do, and why so many well-funded initiatives quietly fail. Consultants, MBA students, and mid-career professionals who’ve sensed that something is wrong with how strategy gets made will find Rumelt gives that feeling a precise name.
If you’re ready to think more clearly about how power gets applied and wasted, this is the audiobook to start with. Listen to Good Strategy/Bad Strategy on Audible UK – and prepare to see every strategy presentation differently afterwards.
