Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Bad Buying

  • How Organisations Waste Billions Through Failures, Frauds and F*ck-Ups
  • By: Peter Smith
  • Narrated by: Peter Noble
  • Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)
Get this deal Try for £0.00
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Bad Buying cover art

Bad Buying

By: Peter Smith
Narrated by: Peter Noble
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Decline and Fall of IBM cover art
Buy, Build, Sell cover art
TED Talks cover art
How Westminster Works...and Why It Doesn't cover art
The Agenda cover art
Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business cover art
Stick Out Your Balance Sheet and Cough cover art
No Bullsh*t Leadership cover art
The Upside of the Downturn cover art
Follow the Money cover art
The Boutique cover art
The Risk-Driven Business Model cover art
Smarter Together cover art
The General Theory of the Translation Company cover art
The Ethical Capitalist cover art
Billion Dollar Lessons cover art

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Why is the Berlin Brandenburg Airport 10 years behind schedule and nearly four billion euros over budget? And what possessed Kenya's government to spend a whopping $35 million on a chain link fence just six miles long?

In this hilarious, fascinating and insightful expose, industry insider Peter Smith reveals the massive blunders and dodgy dealings taking place around the world as private companies and public-sector bodies buy goods and services. A recent report showed that over 90 per cent of procurement projects fail. So, why are so many billions wasted on ineptitude, mismanagement and, in some cases, fraud?

By turns an entertaining account of some of the worst procurement scams in history and also a resounding lesson in how not to operate, Bad Buying offers clear and practical advice on how to avoid embarrassing mistakes, minimise needless waste and make sound, strategic procurement decisions on your next initiative.
©2020 Peter Smith (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Negotiating Project Management
Show More Show Less

Critic reviews

"Had this been published pre-Covid, some of the recent f--k-ups and waste might have been avoided. It's a must read for the public and private sector alike." (Lt-Gen. Sir Andrew Gregory, SSAFA: The Armed Forces Charity)

"Hilarious, enlightening and brilliant.... This book will make you think twice about buying anything - but do buy this." (Antonio Weiss, best-selling author of 101 Business Ideas That Will Change the Way You Work and director, The PSC)

What listeners say about Bad Buying

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Rob Sedgwick

Misleading

I thought this book was quite misleading as it's written more for someone who owns a company and is involved in procurement. I got it for the blurb expecting lots of tales of amusing anecdotes and disastrous decisions. There were parts on that but they will only a small fraction of the book. It didn't feel like a "popular" work to me.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!