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Episode 8: Gary Hamel
Highlights:
In their book, "Competing for the Future", which came out in 1995.
Hamel and Prahalad start off by pointing out that you can improve
your results in two ways: by cutting your costs, or by increasing
your outputs.
But too many companies focus on the cost-cutting. So why don't people
concentrate more on the output than the costs? Because their strategic
vision is too narrow. It is defined by what the competition
is doing.
It is, says Hamel, important to think about what is NOT there. That
done, you need a strategy for doing something about it. A "Strategic
Intent", forces one to think beyond the present and to contemplate
new worlds.
Being different is really the theme of Gary's latest book, called
"Leading the Revolution". Most importantly of all he talks about
the "grey-haired revolutionaries" - the companies that reinvent
themselves time and time again. Anyone can have one great
new idea or vision, very few can keep on doing it.
This is how Hamel's 10 requirements go:
1. Have Unreasonable Expectations
2. Make your business definition elastic, don't get fixated on
one vision 3. Have a cause, not a business
4. Listen to other voices: young people, newcomers, outsiders
5. Keep an open market for ideas, don't shut anyone up
6. Have an open market for capital, allow people to bid for funds
to support experiments
7. Have an open market for talent, so that people are allowed to
work in areas that excite them
8. Encourage low risk experimentation
9. The principle of cellular revolution: breaking the organization
down into small groups so that a failed revolution won't damage
the whole organization
10. Allow personal wealth accumulation.Successful ideas should make
money for the people who came up with them
Nevertheless, as Hamel agrees, you need both revolution AND luck
to succeed in an uncertain world.
In my next talk we will meet the only woman on our list - the guru
of change management - Rosabeth
Moss Kanter.
Read Gary Hamel's
biography
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