World-renowned strategy guru Gary Hamel, in his book Leading the Revolution has made an attempt in drawing an action plan. A plan that would help stir-up organizations, who intent to become an industry revolutionaries. Hamel the who coined the very famed term "Core Competence" along with C. K. Prahalad has articulated through his many observations that, "To thrive in the age of revolution, companies must adopt a radical new innovation agenda". In short his book is about Strategy Innovation.

With many stories, from IBM (David Grossman), Sony (Ken Kutaragi), Shell (Georges D-Roc) et al, the author has been able to elucidate the reasons for success in such companies in a largely competitive environment. Some of the finer observations made from such industry leaders have found presence in this compendium of industry-stories.

1. The Linear to Non Linear Transformation of Companies:
   In this competitive age it is time to shake the foundations of the company's beliefs and move from a linear age of getting better, smarter, and faster, to a nonlinear age of becoming different.

   

2. Blow up old Business Models:
   Industry revolutionaries don't tinker at the margins; they blow up old business models and create new ones. The author describes some successful revolutionaries like Charles Schwab, The Home Depot, Yahoo!, Amazon. COM, Dell Computers and others who have gone beyond a mere change of process - they have changed their business models!

3. The Birth of Revolutionaries in Organizations - The Activists:
   There needs to be the presence of people in organization who are changers - Activists who traverse all boundaries, those who redefine spirit, are not mere visionaries. Their goal is to create a movement within their company and a revolution outside it. Strategies no longer are confined to top managers.

4. Strategy - now a new School of Thought:
   Strategic decision-making need not be orthodoxy. Trials by fire, take risks, make mistakes quickly, fix them fast and don't get pinned down (to any one way of thinking).

5. Core Competency: the final word is to retain your sword:
   Practice what you are good at. Outsource technology and innovation if the situation so desire. Don't be laid-back as your competitors are finding their way to capture your market.

The art of strategy making begins from the first step of recognizing the inherent strengths of one's organization. Hamel's book is helpful in bringing home the importance of an organization's competencies. The book is a must read for Business students who are inclined to study organizations and the strategy innovation paradigm.

* Contributed by -
Bibaswan Dash,
II Year - PGDM,
Committee Member - XOPS, the XIMB Operations Society,
XIM Bhubaneswar.