The World Is Changing

Book chapter, 2016

Today’s business world is marked by rapid and constant change. For most firms, this requires fundamentally re-inventing management, as the typical corporate bureaucracy cannot respond well. This chapter describes the multiple forces of change, illustrates the pitfalls of old-style management, and introduces a new management model for the times. The new model, used in a number of Silicon Valley companies and elsewhere, is a form of entrepreneurial management. It emphasizes dynamic capabilities, ambidexterity, and other qualities aimed at achieving adaptability, innovation and speed. It also relies on attracting and retaining top talent—specifically, highly entrepreneurial people. Examples show how this new model succeeds, and how older models fail, in industries ranging from telecom to textile manufacturing.