The Future of Management

Gary Hamel's books have always been fascinating and relevant, but perhaps none more than his most recent, The Future of Management. He argues strongly that management innovation will deliver big payoffs in the future for businesses which adopt it.

Hamel defines management innovation as "anything that substantially alters the way in which the work of management is carried out, or significantly modifies customary organizational forms, and by so doing, advances organizational goals. Put simply, management innovation changes the way managers do what they do, and does so in a way that enhances organizational performance."

Management innovation encompasses value-creating changes to organizational structures and roles. New ways of connecting business units or departments or new ways to form alliances or strategic relationships with suppliers or customers can be management innovations.

Management innovation goes right after management processes, which include strategic planning, budgeting, project management, hiring and retention, training and development, employee assessment and review, internal communications and knowledge management.

Hamel urges that management innovation yields the most positive results and the greatest competitive advantage when one or more of three conditions exist. They are:

1. the innovation is based on a novel management principle challenging a sacred cow type orthodoxy.
2. the innovation is systemic, spreading through a gamut of processes.
3. the innovation is part of an ongoing creative burst in which progress can compound over time.

The book is, quite simply, brilliant. And it is consistent with previous Hamel.To win in the future we need to give up the past. Start your innovation initiative with a problem that is important (consequential). The problem needs to be one that will motivate action on everyone's part. Hamel says it should be "inspiring, essential and laudable."

So, instead of just encouraging everyone to be creative in coming up with solutions to their individual issues, there should be a systemic look at our processes to see if they are obstacles to achievement.

Managers can be invested in the past. Their entire careers can be based on the way things have always be done. They assume there is wisdom behind those choices. And there may well have been at one time. But the world has changed and continues to change and many of those tenets of the past have become irrelevant, or worse have become obstacles to success.

I have had some personal experience both as a business owner and a consultant in this area. My employees have always been far more expert than I in the subject matter of my businesses. On numerous occasions I have asked why we do something a certain way, and they have adamantly argues that it is the only way to do it and it has always been done that way. Forcing them to look at other alternatives was always a painful but illuminating process.

And as a consultant, it is easy to ask "innocent' questions about process and to listen to the responses, which typically range from confident to defensive.

Remember, people have a great stake in the way things are and they will defend their turf with great vigor. What a great challenge to orient your company toward the future and point it away from the past. It is a high stakes game. It can pay great rewards.

Hamel points the way. I am sure I will blog further on this book as it is an important one. But, in the meantime ask whether your management processes are preparing you for the future, or even working in the present. You might be surprised about what you find.

Comments

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