Leading the Revolution

A fixture in the Harvard Business Review, and the man who introduced the phrase ""core competencies"" into the business lexicon, Hamel urges everyone, including managers of old-line companies, to lead a business revolution by fully implementing e-commerce, participating in cooperative techniques such as joint ventures, engaging in ""co-oppetition"" (selective cooperation between competitors) and taking advantage of the general upheaval in the marketplace. Hamel, a consultant on the faculty of both the London School of Economics and the Harvard Business School, makes his case forcefully and clearly: the ""gale of creative destruction [theorized by economist Joseph Schumpeter] has become a hurricane. New winds are battering down the fortifications that once protected the status quo."" The solution, he argues, is simple: imagine the kind of future you want for your company, then go out and create it. Businesspeople have to rethink everything they've ever learned, he argues, because firms will either become revolutionaries or will become irrelevant. In addition to cheerleading for change, Hamel fills his book with examples of companies large (Enron) and small (Sephora) that have seized huge competitive advantages by changing either their mission or the way business is done in their industry. Some of Hamel's fans--and they are legion--may be disappointed by this volume, however, because it co clearly echoes Hamel's earlier writings. Even so, his powerful presentation may well spur to action those not already familiar with his work. 150,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)