Competing for the Future - Hardcover

Hamel and Prahalad caution that complacent managers who get too comfortable in doing things the way they've always done will see their companies fall behind. For instance, the authors consider the battle between IBM and Apple in the 1970s. Entrenched as the leading mainframe-computer maker, IBM failed to see the potential market for personal computers. That left the door wide open for Apple, which envisioned a computer for every man, woman, and child. The authors write, "At worst, laggards follow the path of greatest familiarity. Challengers, on the other hand, follow the path of greatest opportunity, wherever it leads." They argue that business leaders need to be more than "maintenance engineers," worrying only about budget cutting, streamlining, re-engineering, and other old tactics. Definitely not for dilettantes, Competing for the Future is for managers who are serious getting their companies in front. -- Dan Ring

Since 1983, Hamel has been on the faculty of the London Business School where he is currently Visiting Professor of Strategic and International Management.

For ten years, Hamel served as Chairman of Strategos, a company that helps companies drive “innovation to the core,” and has trained tens of thousands of individuals around the world in the art of business innovation. The Strategos approach to innovation has been covered in major business magazines around the world and is the subject of several Harvard Business School case studies.

Hamel received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and has held faculty appointments at the U. of M. and Harvard Business School. He is a fellow of the World Economic Forum and serves on the editorial board of the Strategic Management Journal. Hamel lives in Northern California.