We Need New Management Systems - Gary Hamel

I saw Gary Hamel Speak at GILD about the need for new management systems. This post from the Business Innovation Insider sums up his speech pretty well, so check it out. Good stuff, what do you think?

Comments

[Wally Bock]

This is an interesting article but I think it probably made more of an impression as a thought-provoking speech than it does in article form.

Hamel does not make clear how "management innovation" differs from process innovation or strategic innovation and any of other types of business innovation. It's also not clear to me what you ought to DO if you agree that management innovation is something you want to pursue.

Part of the problem is that Dr. Hamel is describing the process from the wrong end. "Fundamental advances," which he defines as the goal of management innovation are far clearer in hindsight than in the planning. He uses DuPont's development of what's come to be known as the DuPont Method of Financial Analysis as a "fundamental advance."

But DuPont didn't set out to make a "fundamental advance." They set out to solve the problem of coming up with a way of evaluating the financial performance of the company in a way that could be easily understood.

Contrary to Dr. Hamel's assertion, innovative managers do this kind of thing all the time. They come up with new ways to do things and they try them out. Some don't work. Some work with a bit of tinkering. And some small number turn into "fundamental advances." They're important, but I don't thing we need some new discipline or jargon to help us understand them.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Wally, I generally agree with you, but I am not sure on this one. I don't think we have seen much in the way of management systems innovation. Most things are basically slight tweaks of the same old hierarchical management structure.

That said, do I know what I am looking for? No, but I am intrigued by the metaphor od open source. What if management and leadership were not positions at all? What if headquarters organizations became virtual? What if decisions were made by the collective using technology? What if the employee relationship ceased? What if teams hired their managers and the manager was actually (not just lip service) lower than the team members in pay and pecking order. What if every month, the rle of manager shifted to a different team member?

I'm just babbling - half of these ideas are not really innovations, either.

You are right that we see things in hindsight.