“Radical management: it’s happening” is the headline in the editor’s letter of the management journal, Strategy & Leadership, Volume 39, Issue 3. Robert Randall offers twin messages:  “One, corporations are failing their stakeholders by wrongly favoring some more than others or by not managing discontinuity through best practices that foster continuous innovation; two, it’s time to try something else.”  As a result of working with these authors and reading manifestos by other leading strategic management thinkers that also call for a reinvention of management, I’m confident that we are witnessing a best-practice revolution. When respected management thinkers like Michael Porter and Gary Hamel tell management to re-boot, then it’s time. It’s not as if the failings of hierarchical, shareholder-first management are a secret. So it should be no surprise that many of the principles of radical management are quietly being adopted by leading companies around the world, to a greater or lesser degree.  Management reinvention… offers company-wide rapid-business-model development as a response to market discontinuity. To compete successfully despite frequent and sudden change, firms have to foster the competencies that promote continuous innovation in both offerings and operations. In practice, managers shift their focus from producing low-cost or high-differentiation offerings to satisfying customers. They become enablers instead of controllers, coordinate their organizations through dynamic linking of teams and customers rather than command and control, make social and customer values their prime concern, and communicate so as to further stakeholder conversations. Leading advocates are Gary Hamel (“It’s time to reinvent management,” S&L V36, N2), Stephen Denning (“Masterclass: The reinvention of management,” S&L V39, N2 and “Reinventing management: the practices that enable continuous innovation,” in this issue), John Hagel in The Power of Pull, and others.  (Note: Those articles require a subscription.)  Meanwhile the Emerald Literati Awards For Excellence were officially announced last week. My article, “Rethinking the organization“, was selected as the Outstanding Article in Strategy & Leadership for 2010. The direct link to all Outstanding and Highly Commended Papers is here.  As a special exception, my prize-winning article, Rethinking the Organization, is available free for unlimited distribution until September 1 here.  Steve Denning’s most recent book is: The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace For the 21st Century (Jossey-Bass, 2010).  Follow Steve Denning on Twitter @stevedenning
Radical management: it's happening! Businesses all around the world are recognizing that traditional management is broken and are reinventing fundamental practices of management.