Synopses & Reviews
"This is not a book about one thing.It's not a 300-page dissertation on leadership, teams, or motivation.Instead, it's a multi-faceted agendafor building organizations that canwin in world of relentless change, ferocious competition, andunstoppable innovation."
—From the Preface
What Matters Now is Gary Hamel's impassioned plea to rethink the fundamental assumptions we have about management, the meaning of work, and organizational life. He asks, "What are the fundamental, make-or-break issues that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead?" The answer is found in five paramount issues: values, innovation, adaptability, passion, and ideology.
Values: With trust in large organizations at an all time low, there is an urgent need to rebuild the ethical foundations of capitalism. What's required is nothing less than a moral renaissance in business.
Innovation: Innovation is the only defense against margin-crushing competition, and the only way to outgrow a dismal economy. In too many companies, innovation is still a buzzword, rather than the responsibility of every single individual. This must change.
Adaptability: In a world of accelerating change, every company must build an evolutionary advantage. The forces of inertia must be vanquished. The ultimate prize: an organization that is as nimble as change itself.
Passion: In business as in life, the difference between "insipid" and "inspired" is passion. With mediocrity fast becoming a competitive liability, success depends on finding new ways to rouse the human spirit at work.
Ideology: Today, businesses need more than better practices; they need better principles. Bureaucracy and control have had their day. It's time for a new ideology based on freedom and self-determination.
"Gary Hamel has crafted a challenging book that starts with values, celebrates innovation, and concludes by opening up the hierarchies of large companies to unleash the true human potential of the people who work there. This is a book to return to again and again as managers everywhere confront the challenges of orthodoxy, management lethargy, and overly-rigid company processes."
—Henry Chesbrough, author, OpenInnovation; professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business
"What Matters Now lets you in on the five things that will transform your organization—or sink it. It's your choice—put Gary Hamel's book at the top of your to-do list or procrastinate and risk falling farther behind."
—Charlene Li, author, Open Leadership; founder of Altimeter Group
Synopsis
Critical insight from the man Fortune called "the world's leading expert on business strategy"About the only thing a leader can be sure of is that what worked yesterday is unlikely to work today, let alone tomorrow. Never before have businesses faced a more fractured, contentious and dynamic environment. If ever there was a need for fundamentally new thinking about values, competition, leadership, organization talent, and how these things are directly tied to management, it is now. Gary Hamel lays out an essential agenda in a world where old nostrums aren't merely useless, but downright toxic.
- Contains more than 25 standalone chapters in six sections that are brutally honest and tackle critical management and leadership challenges head-on
- Explains how to move from defense to offense, reverse the tide of commoditization, and outrun change
- Tackles how to effectively hack management, capture the moral high ground, and foster extraordinary contribution
- Written by one of the world's most prescient management experts and the acclaimed author of The Future of Management
Concise and to the point, What Matters Now will inspire leaders to rethink their business, their management, and how they lead.
Synopsis
This is not a book about one thing. It's not a 250-page dissertation on leadership, teams or motivation. Instead, it's an agenda for building organizations that can flourish in a world of diminished hopes, relentless change and ferocious competition.
This is not a book about doing better. It's not a manual for people who want to tinker at the margins. Instead, it's an impassioned plea to reinvent management as we know it—to rethink the fundamental assumptions we have about capitalism, organizational life, and the meaning of work.
Leaders today confront a world where the unprecedented is the norm. Wherever one looks, one sees the exceptional and the extraordinary:
- Business newspapers decrying the state of capitalism.
- Once-innovative companies struggling to save off senescence.
- Next gen employees shunning blue chips for social start-ups.
- Corporate miscreants getting pilloried in the blogosphere.
- Entry barriers tumbling in what were once oligopolistic strongholds.
- Hundred year-old business models being rendered irrelevant overnight.
- Newbie organizations crowdsourcing their most creative work.
- National governments lurching towards bankruptcy.
- Investors angrily confronting greedy CEOs and complacent boards.
- Newly omnipotent customers eagerly wielding their power.
- Social media dramatically transforming the way human beings connect, learn and collaborate.
Obviously, there are lots of things that matter now. But in a world of fractured certainties and battered trust, some things matter more than others. While the challenges facing organizations are limitless; leadership bandwidth isn't. That's why you have to be clear about what really matters now. What are the fundamental, make-or-break issues that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead? Hamel identifies five issues are that are paramount: values, innovation, adaptability, passion and ideology. In doing so he presents an essential agenda for leaders everywhere who are eager to...
- move from defense to offense
- reverse the tide of commoditization
- defeat bureaucracy
- astonish their customers
- foster extraordinary contribution
- capture the moral high ground
- outrun change
- build a company that's truly fit for the future
Concise and to the point, the book will inspire you to rethink your business, your company and how you lead.
Synopsis
Build a company that's fit for the future and fit for human beings"Gary Hamel delivers again. He challenges organizational orthodoxies and creates a sharp gap between what the future holds and the status quo. What Matters Now fits my definition of a true innovation: it is unique and compelling, creates advantage because it's ahead of the curve, and provides a significant value for leaders by underscoring what it takes to succeed in the 21st century."
—Jeff M. Fettig, chairman and CEO, Whirlpool Corporation
"What Matters Now is an exciting tapas bar of a book, packed with nuggets of unconventional wisdom, tempting plates of inspiring advice, and several bracing shots of bold ideas. Gary Hamel is a legend in the world of management thinking—and this book reminds us why."
—Daniel H. Pink, author, Drive and A Whole New Mind
"Gary Hamel's brilliantly written book provides a deeply insightful view of 21st century leadership. He captures its essence: building on values, innovating and adapting rapidly to changing environments, and being passionate in leading people rather than relying on traditional management techniques. Hamel focuses on humanity in leading rather than skills. If you follow his advice, you'll becomea great leader."
—Bill George, former chair & CEO, Medtronic; professor, Harvard Business School; author, True North
"In What Matters Now, Gary Hamel describes the foundational principles fornext-generation management. This is an essential guide for building a post-bureaucratic company."
—James Whitehurst, president and CEO, Red Hat
"If Gary Hamel has to singlehandedly drag the profession of management into the 21st century, he will. He's got the passion, the energy, and the smarts required for the job, and in What Matters Now, he provides a wealth of essential advice for management renegades everywhere."
—Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist, MIT; author, Enterprise 2.0
About the Author
Gary Hamel (Silicon Valley, CA) has been called the world's “most influential business thinker” (Wall Street Journal) and “leading expert on business strategy" (Fortune). His landmark books have appeared on every management bestseller list. He is also author of 15 articles for the Harvard Business Review and articles for the WSJ, Fortune and Financial Times. He is on the faculty of the London Business School and consults with GE, Time Warner, Nokia, Nestle, Shell, Best Buy, Procter & Gamble, 3M, IBM, and Microsoft. He founded the management consulting firm Strategos and the think-tank MLab. He is currently leading an effort to build an open innovation platform for reinventing management. The Management Innovation Exchange (www.managementinnovationexchange.com) has been designed to radically accelerate the evolution of management knowledge and practice.
Table of Contents
Preface ix
SECTION 1: Values Matter Now 1
1.1 Putting First Things First 3
1.2 Learning from the Crucible of Crisis 9
1.3 Rediscovering Farmer Values 25
1.4 Renouncing Capitalism's Dangerous Conceits 29
1.5 Reclaiming the Noble 35
SECTION 2: Innovation Matters Now 39
2.1 Defending Innovation 41
2.2 Cataloging the World's Greatest Innovators 45
2.3 Inspiring Great Design 55
2.4 Turning Innovation Duffers into Pros 61
2.5 Deconstructing Apple 73
SECTION 3: Adaptability Matters Now 83
3.1 Changing How We Change 85
3.2 Becoming an Enemy of Entropy 91
3.3 Diagnosing Decline 103
3.4 Mourning Corporate Failure 111
3.5 Future-Proofing Your Company 119
SECTION 4: Passion Matters Now 135
4.1 Exposing Management’s Dirty Little Secret 137
4.2 Putting Individuals Ahead of Institutions 145
4.3 Building Communities of Passion 153
4.4 Reversing the Ratchet of Control 163
4.5 Reinventing Management for the Facebook Generation 171
SECTION 5: Ideology Matters Now 179
5.1 Challenging the Ideology of Management 181
5.2 Managing Without Hierarchy 193
5.3 Escaping the Management Tax 207
5.4 Inverting the Pyramid 233
5.5 Aiming Higher 243
Appendix: The Half Moon Bay "Renegade Brigade" 259
Notes 261
Acknowledgments 267
About the Author 269
Index 271