Don't be a bug on the windshield!

"On the road to the future, who will be the windshield, and who will be the bug?" - Gary Hamel

To be competitive in today's world, you must focus not only on the here and now, but also focus on creating the future because "Nothing is more liberating than becoming the author of one's own destiny."

Hamel and Prahalad deeply understand the very core of competition, and provide the reader with an understanding of how to build a great company.

Chapter 1: Getting Off the Treadmill In addition to paying attention to their position in the current market, companies must focus more on creating the future of the industry and their stake in it.

Chapter 2: How Competition for the Future is Different Competition for the future is competition to maximize the share of future opportunities.

Chapter 3: Learning to Forget Unless a company wishes to meet the fate of the dinosaurs, it must stop looking in the rear view mirror.

Chapter 4: Competing for Industry Foresight Industry foresight allows companies to envision ways of meeting unarticulated needs. Foresight arises from wanting to make a difference in people's lives.

Chapter 5: Crafting Strategic Architecture "Not only must the future be imagined ... it must be built." Strategic architecture is a set of plans on how to turn your dream into reality.

Chapter 6: Strategy as Stretch "It is not cash that fuels the journey to the future, but the emotional and intellectual energy of every employee." Strategy must be built upon the juncture of where the firm is and where it wants to be.

Chapter 7: Strategy as Leverage The real issue for many struggling managers is not a lack of resources, but too many priorities, too little stretch, and too little creative thinking about how to leverage resources.

Chapter 8: Competing to Shape the Future Getting to the future first may empower a company to establish the rules by which other companies will have to compete.

Chapter 9: Building Gateways to the Future Every top management team is competing not only to protect the firm's position within existing markets, but to position the firm to succeed in new markets.

Chapter 10: Embedding the Core Competence Perspective All too often, opportunity that falls between the cracks of existing market and departmental definitions, gets overlooked.

Chapter 11: Securing the Future What counts most is not hitting a bulls' eye the first time, but how quickly one can improve one's aim and get another arrow on the way to the target.

Chapter 12: Thinking Differently "To ultimately 'be' different, a company must first 'think' differently." To share in the future, a company must learn as much about thinking differently as it does about what to do.

Competing for the Future is a lively study in how to transform today's dreams into tomorrow's reality. Don't read this book at your own peril. Competing today, without regard to tomorrow's possibilities will certainly stack the odds in your competitor's favor.

Michael Davis, President - Brencom Strategic Business Consulting

1990s thought leadership

Hamel and Prahalad brought two ideas to the forefront of management in the 1990s: Creating a strategic intent that dominates corporate thinking, and then understanding the core competencies that the organization requires to get there. Rather than create numerous 5 year plans, communicate the direction and insure you have the skills to get there.

The impact of this was felt across corporate Americas. As companies struggled in reacting to changing times, they would talk more of core competencies instead of certainty of the future. Well run companies could also articulate their vision and what they're good at. (Example GE: "We are #1 or #2 in every business we run. We get there by rigorous management and continuous improvement.") These ideas are here to stay.

Is it all so simple? In Consulting Demons, Lewis Pinault takes issue with Prahalad and his consulting practice at Gemini. He asserts that the ideas can be misapplied to fuel a consulting boom, and that Prahalad's missionary zeal was better for generating consulting fees than for corporate bottom lines.

Bottom line - the book is a good introduction to some important strategic concepts. Although it is no longer required reading at top consulting firms, it is still relevant and important. Just take the ideas (like all pop management ideas) with a grain of salt.