New competitive realities have ruptured industry boundaries, overthrown much of standard management practice, and rendered conventional models of strategy and growth obsolete. In their stead have come the powerful ideas and methodologies of Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, whose much-revered thinking has already engendered a new language of strategy. In this book, they develop a coherent model for how today's executives can identify and accomplish no less than heroic goals in tomorrow's marketplace. Their masterful blueprint addresses how executives can ease the tension between competing today and clearing a path toward leadership in the future.
Amazon.com Review
Winning in business today is not about being number one--it's about who "gets to the future first," write management consultants Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad. In
Competing for the Future, they urge companies to create their own futures, envision new markets, and reinvent themselves.
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Hamel and Prahalad (coauthors of Harvard Business Review) develop judicious, provocative managerial theses in this sophisticated work. Rejecting recent downsizing and reengineering trends, they present their blueprint for transforming an industry's structure, which, they stress, is the primary challenge facing today's managers. The authors focus on tomorrow's competition and opportunities, vitalizing the company for the future and outrunning competitors to "get to the future first." Pioneering ideas on strategy, leadership competencies and market forces abound in this study. Concepts are presented with numerous visual aids. 50,000 first printing; $75,000 ad/promo; first serial to Fortune; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Hamel and Prahalad, both academicians and active consultants of strategic management with an international focus, give us a provocative, future-oriented book that shows how an organization can seize control of its industry and create future markets. Unlike the recent books promoting downsizing, restructuring, and/or reengineering, this timely volume advances an aggressive framework of "industry transformation" as the way to be strategic. The dozen chapters present practical advice about how to dominate emerging opportunities while staking out new competitive space within the industry. The authors challenge business leaders to change the status quo. The audience for this well-written work's is today's business executives; academicians and advanced students should also find it worthwhile.
Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Hamel and Prahalad have coauthored a number of best-selling, award-winning articles for the Harvard Business Review on corporate strategy and competition. Among them has been The Core Competence of the Corporation, HBR's most reprinted article ever. Expanding on this earlier work, they suggest here that the current emphasis on corporate structure (re-engineering, downsizing, etc.) is misplaced and that corporations that will be successful in the future will transform their industry rather than themselves. That transformation will occur by developing strategies to exploit a company's core competencies instead of its current product line. For example, Nike's core competence is not shoe quality, but, rather, design and merchandising. Likewise, Sony's is miniaturization; McDonald's, convenience; and Wal-Mart's, logistics. The authors' accessible style (most footnotes are from the popular business press, and Fortune plans to serialize their book) and thought-provoking insights should make this a much-sought-after business title. David Rouse --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Named one of "The 25 Most Influential Business Management Books" by TIME Magazine (TIME.com)
About the Author
C.K. Prahalad is the Harvey C. Fruehauf Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration and Chairman of the Board of Praja, a technology management company in San Diego. He lives in San Diego but travels extensively.
