What Matters Now

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.