The Future of Management. By Gary Hamel and Bill Breen, Harvard Business School Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4221-0250-3

Gary Hamel and Bill Breen, Harvard Business School Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4221-0250-3

Abstract

Gary Hamel asserts in this book that management as we know has finally
reached maturity. By this he means that the productivity and effectiveness
gains of modern management have slacked down at the marginal levels and
the spark of innovation is loosing its pace. For this he cites a metaphor of
‘fitness landscape’ where starting from bottom one sees huge peaks and
mountains to climb and as one conquers one mountain to another, the
challenge seems to diminish. At this point when no new tall mountains have
to be climbed, one needs to change the landscape and find another fitness
landscape of another order to find higher challenges. According to the author,
management of today is out of focus to a sense of circling around traditional
industrial management principles of efficiency and discipline that does little
to invigorate human spirit. Thus Hamel maintains that we have reached the
end of modern management where drastic level productivity is not being
realized for a long time since the beginning of the last century. According to
the author, it seems we have limited our capacity to rethink managerial
principles, processes, policies, and realities to match the human potential for
innovation. As a result we are stifled by bureaucratic and stability-oriented
mindset.