What Matters Now (PDF)

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.