Our organizations are failing us. They're sluggish, change-phobic, and emotionally arid. Human beings, by contrast, are adaptable, creative, and full of passion. This gap between individual and organizational capability is the unfortunate by-product of bureaucracy--the top-down, rule-choked management structure that undergirds virtually every organization on the planet.

Invented in the nineteenth century with the goal of turning people into semi-programmable robots, bureaucracy is deeply dehumanizing. Today, only 13 percent of employees around the world are fully engaged in their work. The rest show up physically but leave much of their enthusiasm and ingenuity at home--hardly surprising given the tendency of bureaucrats to regard human beings as mere "resources."

By the authors' reckoning, bureaucracy costs the global economy more than $9 trillion in lost economic output each year. Worse, despite all the hype around flat organizations and agile processes, bureaucracy is growing, not shrinking.

In their provocative and practical new book, world-renowned business thinker Gary Hamel and expert coauthor Michele Zanini lay out a detailed blueprint for creating organizations that are fully human and free from the shackles of bureaucracy. Few leaders would admit to being champions of bureaucracy, but rarer still is the leader who has a plan for defeating it. Essential elements include:

- Calculating the hidden costs of "bureausclerosis"

- Ridding ourselves of toxic bureaucratic beliefs

- Drawing lessons from organizations that have excised bureaucracy

- Uprooting bureaucratic structures and processes while avoiding operational chaos

- Overcoming the resistance of those inclined to defend bureaucracy

- Learning to lead in an environment in which position and rank are no longer the keys to the kingdom

The ultimate goal: organizations that are infused with the spirit of entrepreneurship, where everyone thinks like an owner, and game-changing innovation is the rule rather than the exception.

Humanocracy brims with illuminating insights, real-world stories, and powerful tools. Both manifesto and manual, it shows you how to build an organization that's fit for the future by building one that's fit for human beings.

Build resilience in your company to weather the greatest crises. If you read nothing else on organizational resilience, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help your company prepare for and overcome disruption, social upheaval, and disaster. This book will inspire you to: Reposition your core business while launching a separate, disruptive business Build the ability to continually anticipate and adjust to emerging trends Prepare for the business implications of climate change Learn about the risks of hyperefficient businesses Develop organizational grit Rebound from a recession faster than your competitors Lead your company through any kind of crisis This collection of articles includes "How Resilience Works" by Diane Coutu; "The Quest for Resilience" by Gary Hamel and Liisa Valikangas; "Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave" by Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen; "Organizational Grit" by Thomas H. Lee and Angela L. Duckworth; "Leading in Times of Trauma" by Jane E. Dutton, Peter J. Frost, Monica C. Worline, Jacoba M. Lilius, and Jason M. Kanov; "Learning from the Future" by J. Peter Scoblic; "Leading a New Era of Climate Action" by Andrew Winston; "The High Price of Efficiency" by Roger L. Martin; "Reigniting Growth" by Chris Zook and James Allen; "Global Supply Chains in a Post-Pandemic World" by Willy C. Shih; and "Roaring Out of Recession" by Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, and Franz Wohlgezogen. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment.

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.

TODAY'S LEADERS KNOW THAT SPEED and agility are the keys to any company's success, and yet many are frustrated that their organizations can't move fast enough to stay competitive. The typical chain of command is too slow; internal resources are too limited; people are already executing beyond normal expectations. As the pace accelerates, how do you inspire people's energy and creativity? How do you collaborate with customers, vendors, and partners to keep your organization on the cutting edge? What kind of organization matches the speed and complexity that businesses must master--and how do you build that organization? Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, one of the world's most revolutionary companies, shows how open principles of management--based on transparency, participation, and community--reinvent the organization for the fast-paced connected era. Whitehurst gives readers an insider's look into how an open and innovative organizational model works. He shows how to leverage it to build community, respond quickly to opportunities, harness resources and talent both inside and outside the organization, and inspire, motivate, and empower people at all levels to act with accountability. The Open Organization is a must-read for leaders struggling to adapt their management practices to the values of the digital and social age. Brimming with Whitehurst's personal stories and candid advice for leading an open organization, as well as with instructive examples from employees and managers at Red Hat and companies such as Google, The Body Shop, and Whole Foods, this book provides the blueprint for reinventing your organization.

In this McKinsey Award-winning article, first published in May 1989, Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad explain that Western companies have wasted too much time and energy replicating the cost and quality advantages their global competitors already experience. Canon and other world-class competitors have taken a different approach to strategy: one of strategic intent. They begin with a goal that exceeds the company's present grasp and existing resources: "Beat Xerox"; "encircle Caterpillar." Then they rally the organization to close the gap by setting challenges that focus employees' efforts in the near to medium term: "Build a personal copier to sell for $1,000"; "cut product development time by 75%." Year after year, they emphasize competitive innovation--building a portfolio of competitive advantages; searching markets for "loose bricks" that rivals have left underdefended; changing the terms of competitive engagement to avoid playing by the leader's rules. The result is a global leadership position and an approach to competition that has reduced larger, stronger Western rivals to playing an endless game of catch-up.

What fuels long-term business success? Not operational excellence, technology breakthroughs, or new business models, but management innovation--new ways of mobilizing talent, allocating resources, and formulating strategies. Through history, management innovation has enabled companies to cross new performance thresholds and build enduring advantages. In The Future of Management, Gary Hamel argues that organizations need management innovation now more than ever. Why? The management paradigm of the last century--centered on control and efficiency--no longer suffices in a world where adaptability and creativity drive business success. To thrive in the future, companies must reinvent management. Hamel explains how to turn your company into a serial management innovator, revealing: The make-or-break challenges that will determine competitive success in an age of relentless, head-snapping change. The toxic effects of traditional management beliefs. The unconventional management practices generating breakthrough results in "modern management pioneers." The radical principles that will need to become part of every company's "management DNA." The steps your company can take now to build your "management advantage." Practical and profound, The Future of Management features examples from Google, W.L. Gore, Whole Foods, IBM, Samsung, Best Buy, and other blue-ribbon management innovators.

One of the world's preeminent business thinkers and co-author of the bestseller, Competing for the Future, Gary Hamel helped set the management agenda for the 1990s. He now brings us into the twenty-first century with Leading the Revolution, which spent time on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Business Week bestseller lists, among others. In his new book, Gary Hamel lays out an innovative action plan for any company or individual intent on becoming-and staying-an industry revolutionary, for years to come. By drawing on the success of "gray haired revolutionaries" like Charles Schwab, Virgin, and GE Capital-companies who are always thinking ahead of the game and growing in new directions-and profiling individuals such as Ken Kutaragi, one of the pioneers of Sony Playstation, Hamel explains how companies can continue to grow, innovate, and achieve success, even in a chaotic world market. With insight culled from years of experience, Hamel:
Explores where revolutionary new business concepts come from
Identifies the key design criteria for building companies that are activist-friendly and revolution-ready
Shows how to avoid becoming "one-vision wonders"
Demonstrates how to harness the imagination of every employee
Explains how to develop new financial measures that focus on creating new wealth
Packed with practical advice, Leading the Revolution is an accessible read, perfect for both businesses and individuals that don't want to get caught in the slow lane in the race for success in the twenty-first century.