I just finished Gary Hamel's latest book, The Future of Management. It is absolutely the most inspiring business book I have ever read. Hamel accurately makes the case that management theory has hardly evolved in the past 50 years. There are plenty of reasons why, but the heart of the problem is that restructuring the organization must go through senior executives who are (a) afraid of change, (b) unfamiliar with innovative approaches, and (c) unwilling to relinquish the command and control power they have so deliberately "earned." So it is, quite literally, business as usual.

The book carefully dissects examples of companies that have dared to take a radically different approach and been rewarded with extraordinary results. Gore, Whole Foods and Google were all born from visionary founders who were unburdened by history, dogma or business school educations. And even the changes that Lou Gerstner at IBM or A.G. Lafley at P&G were compelled to make are illustrative of the possibilities for gradual transformation in even the most traditional corporate behemoths.

I experimented with some of these principles as a CEO, but never had the vision to jump in the deep end. As a result of The Future of Management, I now see how much more powerful, innovative, effective and personally fulfilling businesses can be. This is a must read for those executives who are not too timid to shy away from redesigning the organization.
Bill Aho
www.atclevel.typepad.com

This is an interesting book. While the title says "The Future of Management," the book is about more than just management. It is also about change, change as it impacts an organization's development and resilience/adaptability. This book uses a wide ranging definition of management and management processes.

In today's Web 2.0 environment, Gary Hamel argues that our current command - control type of management practices are actually toxic to organizational success and excellence. Hamel argues that what is needed today is management innovation or Management 2.0. He sees management innovation being needed in the areas of managing talent, allocating resources, organization structural design and the building of operational strategies.

If you are looking for a prescriptive answer to future of management, this book is not for you. Rather than offer his own prescription, Hamel has chosen instead to offer the reader/manager a series of questions throughout the book. Questions designed to help you, the reader, think about the type of management innovations needed within your own organization. Questions designed to help you mold your thinking about the management philosophy and practices you can use within your organization to successfully compete and thrive in the future.

If there is a fault with the book, I would say it lies in the examples Hamel uses to illustrate his key points. I wish he had used more examples (if they even exist) from the more traditional, hierarchical, bureaucratic type organizations in existence today, rather than those organizations specifically created from the beginning as innovative type organizations.

Organizations are top heavy. Something needs to be done about it. The future of management is about giving everyone the opportunity to say, "This is not going to happen anymore". Be brave and make change in your organization.

Hamel makes a compelling argument in pointing out the lack of innovation that has occurred to our fundamental management principles constructed well over half a century ago. While technology and the speed of business have rapidly changed in the past fifty years, the way companies are organized and managed has not. This is problematic because, like with anything else, there must be change and innovation for companies to continue to be successful. The book points out several examples of top companies that have redefined the role of management in the twenty-first century. Companies such as W.L. Gore, Google and Whole Foods have taken untraditional management approaches and have turned them into money-making endeavors. The practices of each of these companies should be a template for tailoring a new management style for any company in any industry.

This book is relevant because there is no loyalty anymore, especially among the younger generations that grew up with the Internet. On the Internet, no hierarchies exist, capability and not titles matter and everyone has a voice and is free to define themselves. In short, Hamel argues that management 2.0 looks a lot like web 2.0 where people voluntary choose how to spend their time and change the world in doing so. I have to agree. The days of the successful company filled with subservient employees commuting to work to be neither asked nor expected to contribute any new ideas, let alone innovate, are over given that the same employee is free to post his own thoughts online, comment on the millions of blogs out there and voluntarily add to open source projects in his free time. Companies that want a competitive edge in the years to come must understand this. Let's hope this book is widely read and that the lightbulb goes on for many of the bureaucrats out there still stuck in management 1.0.

"The Future of Management", a book on management innovation, is a sequel to "Leading the Revolution", my favorite title by Gary Hamel, a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm, and a visiting Professor of Strategic Management at London Business School. Gary Hamel is the originator (with C. K. Prahalad) of the concept of core competencies, introduced in a 1990 Harvard Business Review article. Core competency is something that a firm can do well and that meets the following three conditions: It provides consumer benefits; It is not easy for competitors to imitate; It can be leveraged widely to many products and markets.

In "The Future of Management" the author claims that he doesn't provide easy answer. He makes tough questions instead. The book serves primarily as an invitation to shed age-old systems and processes and think differently. I like this style of writing very much. I can recommend "Leadership without easy answers" by Ronald Heifetz in addition to this book.

"The Future of Management" has recently become available in audio format. I highly recommend the audio version of this book.

If you are ready for this book as a manager, it will change your life, your management style and the view of those that work with you, and the success of your organisation. If you do not "get" what Hamel is saying, then you will continue to struggle with the uninspiring hierarchically based management style that permeates our organisations.

People should be able to get up of a morning and be excited about going to work. If your employees are not, then it is your fault as a manager - fix it. This book tells you how.

This is a great book with great concepts and great ideas. I like the fact that Hamel puts it up front that this book does not have the answers. I would imagine that makes sense, I think any specific ideas about the 'Future of Management' would have fallen short of expectations.
But he provides a compelling case for the need to rethink how we manage. The opening chapters on the present management systems was spot on and I would agree that even as everything else has progressed, particularly through technology that enables, e.g. how we communicate and all the web 2.0 stuff, little of this has permeated in a systematic way in organisations in most cases.
We still plan and execute strategy the same way, we still organise and review data, appraise staff the same way. Given all that we have and how we are able to do things, can we manage differently.
Hamel also sets out compelling agenda or purpose for wanting to re-look at management and what should change in the future of management - he talks about the work place - being a place of innovation and a place where employees are engaged and enjoy their work.
Hamel also provides peeks into what the future of management might look like through profiling some companies (e.g. Google).
Finally, the idea that Hamel suggests that has struck a chord with me most is the idea of Management 2.0 - riding off the technologies that have enabled web 2.0 - one that is more user centric, user driven and user responsive.

Only start a few page then I realized that this book definitely worth buying it! Especially for people who was employeed under a mass structure,feeling discouraged about your management team, you should never miss this book!

Through this book, Gary Hamel goes after all the sacred cows of management: all the bureaucratic practices that have been built up over the past 100 years starting with the "scientific management" theories in the early 20th century. He makes a compelling argument that the most innovative companies of the 21st century are going to be the ones that will innovate their management practices. These practices include the planning processes, the budgeting processes, the hiring processes, the incentive and performance management processes. And, he backs it with examples of companies that are leading the way: Whole Foods, Gore and Google. Then based upon these companies and others (e.g. Toyota), he defines some principles of the future of management - a workplace that is as democratic as the countries that the corporation exists in today. And, why shouldn't that occur? Why shouldn't the same democratic principles that the average corporation thrives on be provided to the people who work there? Needless to say, there will be a lot of conflict on the way to this management philosophy, but the companies who get there first will be able to draw the talent in the future, just like Google is doing today. And that will probably be the reason that some of today's dinosaur organizations will be dragged kicking and screaming into 21st century management - or just like the dinosaur become obsolete.

I believe that this book describes in which direction management will be moving in the future.

When you buy a book named "the future of management" your expectations about the thoughts inside are high. And what is more, if the book is written by one of the most renamed investigators in the world, the expectation is even higher...

I think this book is written for your airplane trips, or for your holidays readings. I mean, there are no so deep-through insights that requires you to deep-thinking...

In the other hand, I agree that there are a few points that Hamel tries to explain pretty well: what's the only way to survive for the organizations, what's the role of innovation, and how management can interact with all the shareholders of the corporation. The author uses some enterprises (for example, Google) to explain how they are using innovation as a strategic option to differentiate. At the end of the book he exposes a summary to implententing a innovation focused strategy.

It's a good book for an easy reading, but not a good one for those who want a deep looking into the field.

This thought-provoking book is at times stimulating and frustrating. Gary Hamel, certainly one of the preeminent business theorists of our time, has done an excellent job in framing the current evolution and condition of business management thinking.

While there has been tremendous evolution in technology, and great efficiencies have been wrung out of virtually every business, the author postulates that present management hierarchical structures have remained essentially unchanged since the early 1900s. He is probably correct in stating that most of the productivity and growth in businesses from efficiencies have largely been realized. Mr. Hamel makes his case that innovation in the workplace is severely hampered by organizational design.

The author relates several examples of the very few apparent companies that have capitalized on opportunities to integrate innovation from top to bottom in their organizations. Unfortunately, according to the author, there are very few organizations that do model what will be required for organizations to thrive and survive in a competitive marketplace. In the very last chapter of the book, Mr. Hamel speaks about the opportunity for hierarchical organizations to model themselves after the development of the Web 2.0 . The overall tenor of his book could be captured in his assessment that companies have 21st-century internet-enabled business processes, mid-20th century management process, all built atop 19th-century management principles.

The book captures the typical brilliance of Mr. Hamel but also is less than a world-class business text due to some unevenness in writing style in the second half of the book. That being said, he succinctly points out that passion, creativity and initiative are the most important aspects of value creation while counter-intuitively the typical organization rewards obedience, diligence and intellect. It is this type of thinking that is at the same time stimulating but also frustrating to those who work in the American Corporation.

If you are seeking the prescriptive book on how to develop these leading edge thoughts to radically evolve your corporation, you will not find them explicitly enumerated in this book. What you will find with some diligent reading are components that you can pull out and craft to the unique circumstances of your organization.

A really great book which has become our textbook for change. We are experts in behavioural change in Management and Sales and know from experience that it is usually harder for competitors to imitate an unconventional management model than it is for them to decode an unconventional business model. This is one of the reasons why traditional Management models have to change: Today the most valuable human capacities are precisely those less manageable. Getting the most and the best out of people, seldom means managimng them more. It means managing them less. It also means changing what people work for. Either they work for the boss and his bureaucracy, or for a community. In a Bureaucracy (Max Weber) the basis for exchange is contractual. In a community exchange is voluntary. In a bureaucracy you are a factor of production - in a community you are a partner in a cause. These are the main points, where change has to start. Or, like Quincy Jones: "Sometimes I have to fire the best musician from my orchestra. Due to his attitude."

This book starts with the hypothesis (if I may it term so) that management theories and practices of the twentieth century are not sufficient to ensure business success in the twenty-first century since many of the past assumptions of management are no longer valid for organizations of this century. Conventional management practices focussed on producing more with less, in other words improve operational efficiencies through automation, adherence to and improvement of internal processes. Theory X instead of Theory Y. "When I hire two hands, why does a brain come along with it?"

Human contribution in organizations they work for have been listed as: Obedience (conformance to rules), Diligence (follow defined processes), Knowledge (related to the task/function assigned), and Initiative (within certain boundaries). These are easily controllable and measurable attributes with the aid of performance measurement systems and well written manuals. In other words, these can be hired and demanded from employees.

What about Creativity and Passion? Unfortunately, conventional management practices ignore these two great traits in human beings that can provide the largest value addition for innovation and growth argues the author. The book also tries to quantify the big difference these traits can make. Creativity and Passion are employees' gift to organizations and cannot be "hired".

Organizations need to continuously adapt and innovate to succeed. Innovation should form a part of its DNA. "A dog cannot dance since its DNA has given it four legs".

The book devotes a chapter each to discuss how companies like W.L.Gore, Whole Foods, IBM and Google have successfully tapped creativity and passion of their employees to achieve great business results. This shows that management innovation can cut across industry verticals and can be successfully practiced with a conscious effort to recognise and unleash full human potential, particularly creativity and passion, the main elements of the innovation DNA.

There are several real life situations from which companies can draw upon to create a vibrant and dynamic environment for innovation. Markets for example are one such. One company has created an internal "market" for "valuation" of ideas and innovation projects. Generating passion through appealing for higher purpose of accomplishment through principles of Human Life and Faith is another. Celebrating diversity and using it as a catalyst for encouraging new ideas, as large cities do, is a great example for global companies leveraging diverse talents and cultures.

One need not be a CEO to be a management innovator. In the case of Best Buy, a vice president uses James Surowieki's the principle of "Wisdom of crowds" to forecast demand for various items. The crowd (ordinary employees) outperforms the experts on every occasion in its accuracy of forecasts.

Finally, there is a chapter linking the dimensions of Amplification and Aggregation. Organizational success depends on simultaneously expanding these two dimensions. Web 2.0 is a great aggregator. I recommend "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More" by Chris Anderson and "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams as essential supplementary readings to better appreciate this book.

If Web 2.0 is changing the way people collaborate, Management 2.0 will change the way companies are managed. Alignment of the two is the new DNA for success that can make even "elephants to dance". Dogs now have much less to worry about!!

This book is a classic and a must read for all managers.

There is an old Arab proverb: "He who speaks about the future lies even when he tells the truth".
The author makes some good points, particularly when discussing the corrosive affect of calcified corporate cultures on employee morale. But he extends his examples of Google, WL Gore and Whole Foods too far. What works for them might not work for other companies. He never makes this distinction (nor tells the reader how to identify it) and he falls into the trap of missing the difference between cause and effect (see the excellent book "The Halo Effect" to learn more about this all too common tendency amongst business management authors).
He gives some good examples of how technology can break down barriers inside of a company, such as internet enabled 'predictive markets' and their ability to help with m&a strategy. But then he goes on to suggest that company sponsored blogs where employees can vent their feelings about their employer (anonymously) might make for a healthier, more innovative workplace. Perhaps I am missing something, but I don't think this would go over too well in most workplaces.
But the real reason I can give only one star is that he never mentions the impact of different cultures on management styles. This is a gross oversight. What works in the US might not work in China, Brazil or India. I was surprised that someone writing a book with the bold title "The Future of Management" could completely overlook such an important topic, especially when our economy is becoming much more global. I would strongly suggest caution if one were to implement some of his strategies.

I read a great book called, The Future of Management by Gary Hamel.

I found the book to be very well written. I read a lot of business books and many of them are not that well written; however, I still like the books if they are well laid out and organized so often report favourably on them. Gary Hamel is a good writer in addition to having good thoughts.

Part One of the book is where Gary challenges us to think. I was contemplating writing an article before I read the book on, "The Power of Excess Resources", or "Is It Possible to be Too Efficient?"

Here is what Gary Hamel has to say:

Contrary to popular mythology, the thing that most impedes innovation in large companies is not a lack of risk taking. Big companies take big, and often imprudent, risks every day. The real brake on innovation is the drag of old mental models. Long-serving executives often have a big chunk of their emotional capital invested in the existing strategy.

In the pursuit of efficiency, companies have wrung a lot of slack out of their operations. Thatâ(tm)s a good thing. No one can argue with the goal of cutting inventory levels, reducing working capital, and slashing overhead. The problem, though, is that if you wring all the slack out of a company, youâ(tm)ll wring out all of the innovation as well. Innovation takes time â" time to dream, time to reflect, time to learn, time to invent, and time to experiment. And it takes uninterrupted time - time when you can put your feet up and stare off into space.

In section one he also explains what a huge percentage of people are not fully engaged in their work at all levels of the company. As English novelist, Ian Forster said, "A person with passion is better than 40 people merely interested."

He also talked about too much management with too little freedom. The gist of that message is that often managers are over-managed.

Part Two moves into a series of stories about real businesses and real people including: Whole Foods, Goretex, and Google.

One thing that I donâ(tm)t like about many authors is when they talk about company success stories, they tend to attribute success to some characteristic they point out when I think they may have pointed out the wrong characteristic so there might not be a link with success. I also note that every circumstance is different at any different time so it is very difficult to take one solution and apply it to another circumstance. Unfortunately, we all still need to think.

Part Three talks about our beliefs. Sometimes our past success can lead to future failure. It is all about change.

One thing I particularly like about this part is a chapter on Learning from the Fringe which basically points out that many of the better ideas and innovations might not come from the existing business or even the existing managers. They often come from the fringes of the organization or the fringe of the business they do.

In Part Four â" The Building of the Future of Management, talks about management 2.0 and what will the new management look like and how to become effective.

This book was thoroughly enjoyable and I would highly recommend it to any leader.

I read a great book called, The Future of Management by Gary Hamel.

I found the book to be very well written. I read a lot of business books and many of them are not that well written; however, I still like the books if they are well laid out and organized so often report favourably on them. Gary Hamel is a good writer in addition to having good thoughts.

Part One of the book is where Gary challenges us to think. I was contemplating writing an article before I read the book on, "The Power of Excess Resources", or "Is It Possible to be Too Efficient?"

Here is what Gary Hamel has to say:

Contrary to popular mythology, the thing that most impedes innovation in large companies is not a lack of risk taking. Big companies take big, and often imprudent, risks every day. The real brake on innovation is the drag of old mental models. Long-serving executives often have a big chunk of their emotional capital invested in the existing strategy.

In the pursuit of efficiency, companies have wrung a lot of slack out of their operations. Thatâ(tm)s a good thing. No one can argue with the goal of cutting inventory levels, reducing working capital, and slashing overhead. The problem, though, is that if you wring all the slack out of a company, youâ(tm)ll wring out all of the innovation as well. Innovation takes time â" time to dream, time to reflect, time to learn, time to invent, and time to experiment. And it takes uninterrupted time - time when you can put your feet up and stare off into space.

In section one he also explains what a huge percentage of people are not fully engaged in their work at all levels of the company. As English novelist, Ian Forster said, "A person with passion is better than 40 people merely interested."

He also talked about too much management with too little freedom. The gist of that message is that often managers are over-managed.

Part Two moves into a series of stories about real businesses and real people including: Whole Foods, Goretex, and Google.

One thing that I donâ(tm)t like about many authors is when they talk about company success stories, they tend to attribute success to some characteristic they point out when I think they may have pointed out the wrong characteristic so there might not be a link with success. I also note that every circumstance is different at any different time so it is very difficult to take one solution and apply it to another circumstance. Unfortunately, we all still need to think.

Part Three talks about our beliefs. Sometimes our past success can lead to future failure. It is all about change.

One thing I particularly like about this part is a chapter on Learning from the Fringe which basically points out that many of the better ideas and innovations might not come from the existing business or even the existing managers. They often come from the fringes of the organization or the fringe of the business they do.

In Part Four â" The Building of the Future of Management, talks about management 2.0 and what will the new management look like and how to become effective.

This book was thoroughly enjoyable and I would highly recommend it to any leader.

An interesting read. There are a lot of good thoughts in here, particularly noteworthy to me are the stress on alternative reporting structures and decision making structures. The discussions of Gore, Google and Whole foods were enjoyable, but not particularly shocking. Overall, I'd have to say that the ideas put forth were very familiar.

Hamel points out that many of the innovative management enhancements have come from 'non-traditional' managers. By this he means those of us who have not gone through the vetted business school manager factories. This fits my profile exactly (I have a degree in arts and letters). To me, the read was a exposure to a few new techniques, not a revelation of a new paradigm.

[...]

This is one of the best books I have read period. The theory, examples, and suggestions laid out in the book are priceless, and it has certainly motivated me to try to change the organization I work for. We are still working under the early 20th century management philosophy for the most part by running under a hierarchical organizational structure. Even though the company encourages innovation to come from every single employee in the company, there is no systemic approach to capture and use the ideas generated by the employees. Moreover, the decisions still are being made by the top few, and there is not much flexibilty in what one is allowed to do for the benefit of the company. The communication also has been poor in that not all data is available to the public within the organization.

FYI, the organization I work for is GE, known to be one of the front runners in management innovation. Having worked in many other companies, I know we do better than most companies out there in areas I described above, but compared to Google, W.L. Gore, and other companies cited as model examples in the book - let's just say we have a lot of catch up to do.

Anyway, I recommend this book to any manager, employee, anybody who is part of any organization to read this book. I am even using the lessons learned here in my Condominium Board!

The only thing this book does not have is a pill that requires status-quo managers to read it! This is required reading to grasp the inflection point in which corporations are at in terms of moving towards management innovation. There needs to be an urgent shift to build a more human and creative enterprise and this will sure get people motivated to do so after showing that it can be done by the companies mentioned in the book.

It matches what I was looking for Future management with the help of cutting edge thoughts.

If confidence is being able to accept the fact that possibly everything you thought you knew was wrong, Gary Hamel challenges your confidence by presenting a new way of the thinking. It's a tremendously stimulating and thought provoking book with wonderful examples that cause you to question and reconsider things about which you were quite certain. A must read for upper management with an open mind.

The characterization of what is taking place in the global business environment is accurate, as described in book. What's more, it is actually quite down to earth sans a few "super big words" that seem to jostle the reader from time to time. As I read the book, I realized that one of the tricks is to figure out how to frame the problem to client companies in a way that does not offend a decision maker, since they may actually be part of the problem. Overall, this is a must read, especially for mid-career managers because the principles are highly germane to what is taking place globally and will likely just begin to be the norm in year 20. It is indeed a fun time, and will be fun to help shape.

It was insightful for me as a seasoned manager to the culture and social changes taking place with successful companies and the new generations of business associates.

A very strongly recommended addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Business & Management reference collections, "The Future Of Management" by Gary Hamel (Visiting Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business School) was written with the assistance of Bill Breen (founding senior editor and senior projects editor of the business magazine 'Fast Company'), focuses on answering a set of questions tied to changing corporate agendas through management innovation. Through a process of analyzing management assumptions, traditions, processes and resources, corporate officers and institutional leaders can more readily adapt to changing market conditions, best utilize their company's human resources and talents, and create viable competitive advantages in volatile and technologically evolving industries. "The Future Of Management" uses real-world examples of such innovative and successful management innovators as Google, W. L. Gore, and Whole Foods. The core message, and one that should be carefully studied by MBA students and corporate officers alike, is that future corporate success will necessitate the creation of organizations that are as adaptable and innovative as possible -- and that, in turn, will require managers to utilize their company's human talent pool to help create those innovations and adaptations.

When you write a book about the future of management, there are bound to be high expectations. When that book is written by one of the more celebrated management thinkers, those expectations go even higher. With that said and recognizing that it is hard to argue with success and stature. I have to say that this book left me flat. Hammel's Future of Management is a continuation on his 2000 work Leading the Revolution (LTR) which combined high impact statements with high design that reflected the height of the internet era. In many ways, the Future of Management is a more somber continuation of the ideas in LTR.

The first section of the book poses a powerful question in terms of what comes next for management innovation. That is followed by an explanation of the importance of management innovation over operational, product and strategic innovation. The section challenges the reader to first imagine, and then invent the future of management. A noble task and one that the author tries to address but unfortunately does not deliver on to the degree that you would expect.

The second section of the book highlights a few case studies such as Whole Foods, WL Gore, and Google. The cases are well written and unabashedly positive highlighting few of the challenges and setbacks people might face in this journey. A few, even anonomyous failures would have been much more illustrative of the concepts Hamel is advocating.

The third and final section is perhaps the best part of the book as it starts to set up some ideas on what future managers and management might look like. Here the results unfortunately are what you might expect, to paraphrase - the future of management will look much like the internet. OK, but I have heard that before from others. Some of the most insightful parts of this section include: the notion of separating what from how, the idea of management DNA and motivation, and the key challenges he poses in terms of the challenges for the future of management. These challenges hearken back to Leading the Revolution and include:

Challenge 1 - Creating a democracy of ideas
Challenge 2 - Amplifying human imagination
Challenge 3 - Dynamically reallocating resources
Challenge 4 - Aggregating collective wisdom
Challenge 5 - Minimizing the drag of old mental models
Challenge 6 - Giving everyone a chance to opt in

The fourth section concentrates on IBM's Emerging Business Opportunities or EBO process and how the company was able to reignite its growth engine by managing new growth initiatives and taking R&D to the market. It's an interesting case study and a good way to wrap up the book.

The future of management is an ok book, more like a toned down east coast consumable version of leading the revolution. This is a book for thinkers rather than practioners. This is one of the reasons why it is not a 5 star rating from me. Hamel attempts to be somewhat Druckeresque, if that is a word, but does not pull off the deep systematic thinking that Peter Drucker did so well. Pushing this analogy, the style of The Future of Management is 80% Drucker and 20% Tom Peters. For me, Hamel's groundbreaking work is still Competing for the Future. If you are a fan of Leading the Revolution or a fan of Hamel you will buy this book and like it. If you are a reader studying the issues and challenges of management you will find that Hamel raises more questions than he answers and that many of the answers are ones that are already out there in the marketplace.

Through a series of well researched examples of successful management innovators from Whole Foods to W.L. Gore to Google, Gary Hamel helps us to see that one of the big challenges in "thinking outside the box" is that perhaps we spend too much time focused on the "little boxes" and not enough time thinking about the big all encompassing box called "management" that can suffocate innovative ideas at birth. Have you ever read a leadership or innovation book that preached "market oriented" or "democratic" principles and found yourself wondering, how can this be implemented inside a traditional "change comes from the top" command and control organization? If so, this book is for you.

Reading this book gave me the distinct impression that, looking ahead 20 to 40 years, the majority of global capital will have moved to nimble organizational forms that have transformed today's executive aristocracies into relics of an earlier age. I've been a fan of Hamel's work for many years. "The Future of Management" is his best work yet.

Great Read, Today's mgmt issues are as stated in the book: wasted energy, creativity, and human potential. We need to get that back to succeed in the work place that is constantly changing. Jamie "AFruitFli"

Hamel challenges the underlying assumptions of current management practices and argues convincingly that the future of management may be less management or at least a different kind of management.

Hamel demonstrates that it is possible for a business to be highly profitable, continously innovative, and enable a positive people environment. Hamel teaches us how to create environments in big organizations where we enable entrepreneurial behavior from employees at all levels.

Hamel challenges us to examine the assumptions about employees which underly most management principles and to ask whether those assumptions are as valid today.

This book should challenge your beliefs and will be a good annual read for all of us. A keeper.

This is a well-wrought, ambitious and fascinating book. For these reasons, and for its specific suggestions about how to produce management innovation, we recommend it to anyone who is interested in innovation, in managing for innovation, and in how management is changing. Gary Hamel's ambition is impressive. He works with the idea of the paradigm shift developed by Thomas Kuhn in his influential book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Hamel applies Kuhn's concept to management, arguing persuasively for the need to change managerial theories and practices. Where Hamel's study directs you for inspiration is particularly fascinating. How many authors suggest modeling management on Google, evolutionary biology and religion (to name but three examples)? While his examples of organizations that practice management innovation do differ from the industrial-age norm he wants to displace, some of his concepts are not as revolutionary as others, nor as radical as a paradigm shift might mandate. After all, many other experts have already suggested that hierarchical, top-down management may stifle innovation. Nonetheless, Hamel's book fulfills most of its ambitions. It is wide-ranging and quite useful.

As he clearly indicates in his earlier books, notably in Competing for the Future (with C.K. Prahalad) and then in Leading the Revolution, Gary Hamel's mission in life is to exorcise "the poltergeists who inhabit the musty machinery of management" so that decision-makers can free themselves from what James O'Toole aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In his Preface to this volume, Hamel asserts that "today's best practices aren't good enough" and later suggests that he wrote this book for "dreamers and doers" who want to invent "tomorrow's best practices today." In this brilliant book, he explains how to do that.

In the city where I live, we have a number of outdoor markets at which slices of fresh fruit are offered as samples of the produce available. In that same spirit, I frequently include brief excerpts from a book to help those who read my review to get a "taste." Here is a representative selection of Hamel's insights:

"To thrive in an increasingly disruptive world, companies must become as strategically adaptable as they are operationally efficient. To safeguard their margins, they must become gushers of rule-breaking innovation. And if they're going to out-invent and outthink as growing mob of upstarts, they must learn how to inspire their employees to give the very best of themselves every day. These are the challenges that must be addressed by 21st-century management innovators." (Page 11)

"Many factors contribute to strategic inertia, but three pose a particularly grave threat to timely renewal. The first is the tendency of management teams to deny or ignore the need for a strategy reboot. The second is a dearth of compelling alternatives to the status quo, which often leads to strategic paralysis. And the third: allocational rigidities that make it difficult to deploy talent and capital behind new initiatives. Each of these barriers stands in the way of zero-trauma change; hence each deserves to be a focal point for management innovation." (Page 44)

"Skepticism and humility are important attributes for a management innovator - yet they're not enough. To create space for management innovation you will need to systematically deconstruct the management orthodoxies that bind you and your colleagues to new possibilities. Here's how to get started. Pick a big management issue like change, innovation, or employee engagement, and then assemble 10 or 20 of your colleagues. Ask each of them to write down ten things they believe about the nominated problem. Have them inscribe each belief on a Post-it note. Then plaster the stickies on a wall and group similar beliefs together." Then sustain a rigorous discussion during which all premises and assumptions are challenged. "To escape the straitjacket of conventional thinking, you have to be able to distinguish between beliefs that describe the world as it is, and describe the world as it is and must forever remain." Focus on what can be changed...and should be changed. (Pages 130-131)

I especially appreciate Hamel's analysis of three exemplary companies: Whole Foods Market (a "community of purpose"), W.L. Gore (an "innovation democracy"), and Google ("brink-of-chaos management"). Hamel focuses his attention to how these companies invent tomorrow's best practices today. He cleverly juxtaposes a "management innovation challenge" with each company's "distinctive management practices." Having established and then sustained a one-on-one rapport with his reader throughout the narrative, Hamel makes it crystal clear that that he is not urging his reader to address the same challenges and develop the same best practices for any one of the three exemplary companies, much less emulate all three. That would be insane.

"There isn't any law that prevents large organizations from being engaging, innovative, and adaptive - and mostly bureaucracy free. Even better, it really is possible to set the human spirit free at work. So no more excuses. It's time for you to buckle down and start inventing the future of management...My goal in writing this book was not to predict the future of management but to help you invent it...From the first time since the dawning of the industrial age, the only way to build a company that's fit for the future is to build one that is fit for human beings as well."

So, there's Gary Hamel's challenge: Start your own "revolution" and lead it. If you don't, who will?