Product Description

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. The paperback edition features a new preface by the authors. Also available in hardcover; ISBN 0875844162, $24.95

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30887 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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 CK 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 have 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 about getting their companies in front. --Dan Ring, Amazon.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.

Customer Reviews

Important reading for corporate strategic planners.
Although I'm no longer completely convinced that the "core competencies" approach is always the right approach to stategic planning, Hamel and Prahalad's work is important reading. Every organization should understand its core competencies and take them into account in their strategic planning process. Having said that, however, I personally prefer the "Key Strategic Driver" concept laid out by Mike Robert in his book "Strategy Pure and Simple". When working with my clients on strategic planning activities, we often discuss core competencies as a prelude to exploring the company's "driving force" or "strategic heartbeat". Adam Lefton

Largely an academic waste of time
If your really want to understand how to compete for the future, read Crossing the Chasm, following by Inside the Tornado (Geoffrey Moore). Competing for the Future will largely waste your time. It is a 100 page book crammed into 300+ pages. The authors spend lots of time repeating fuzzy feel good ideas, and criticizing current managers, but say little that would actually help you compete for the future. They continually cite Apple as the poster child for Competing for the Future (ignoring the fact that the Mac was created in a skunkworks -- a concept they poo-poo.) Yet you can see from Apple's plight today that Hamel and Prahalad have certainly not found the most important thing for long term success. Companies that spend too much time looking 20 years out will never see it, as Apple will not. The truth is that top management can certainly ask themselves "What will competition mean in 20 years?", but they will most certainly be wrong. We live in chaotic times, and the best companies know how to turn on a dime and exploit current emerging markets (Microsoft is great at this). Hamel and Prahalad's books is destined to sit on many shelves, looking very impressive but doing nothing for its readers.

As important now as ever..
It's been a number of years since Hamel co-wrote this seminal work, and its essence has been re-worked frequently, both by him and others. Indeed, it's a testament to its importance and relevance that it forms the backbone of so much of today's 'accepted wisdom'.

However, neither nostalgia or originality are the reasons to buy this book - rather it's simply that it's so well written - each argument is clear, progressing through why competitive strategy is not quite as mechanical as Porter would have us believe, and then illustrating how this has been achieved by well-known companies.

The result is a compelling and convincing read, which has stood the test of time - if you're looking for a framework for understanding how to compete with other firms, grab a copy.