Strategy as Revolution by Gary Hamel Literature review

Strategy as Revolution by Gary Hamel - Literature review Example Hamel argues in his article that while change may not be welcomed so easily, it should take the courage and initiative of the rule breakers or those in favor of new approaches to present clearly their positions to the senior management for subsequent adoption as policies. Worth noticing is that while Hamel encourages revolutionary approach in policy formulation and demand for change, he nevertheless points out that organizational hierarchy should be respected and a good method which incorporates everyone should be adopted as the best way forward. Introduction For a longtime, many business enterprises have been concerned about the direction of the business, normally employing the tested methodologies that work, or at least the ones that have been approved or put into practice by old establishments. Management is normally concerned with where the business is making an effort to get to in the long run, which, I must say, is not bad only that every other business has the same dream: dire ction. By the same token of concern for business direction, so are they also concerned about which market a business should venture into and what competition strategies are anticipated to work in their best interest? Not only will you find these businesses also doing research on what resources in terms of assets, facilities, technical competence and even finance, but also on what to expect in the external environment. Well planned, that is the trend, unaltered as propounded by many old theories of economics. This is not to dispute the validity of these theories, because when they were formulated, they laid the foundation of the current market scenarios that we see today. To put it differently, suffice it to say that this is what management has for a long time accepted as strategy. So then, what is strategy? Johnson and Scholes define strategy as the direction and scope an organization takes to achieve long term market goals. Strategy exists under different levels such as corporate s trategy, business unit strategy and operational strategy. Article Critique Hamel (Hamel, 1996, p. 69) observes that in the recent past, business firms are all struggling to expand in what he terns as a fight for incrementalism. He also observes that in the current time and space, success is being achieved by how fast firms respond to customers' desires. In addition to this, Hamel also finds out that while this strategy is being adopted by firms, not all, business firms have earned themselves positions in the competitive market either as rule-makers or rule-breakers (Hamel, 1996, p.70; Choe Maker, 1995: 31). That either business firms set rules on how they want to operate in the market or as would be campaigned for, revolutionize the whole system of conformity to predetermined set of rules of the early economists. His view is both divergent and emergent in the sense that he deviates from the norms and presents emerging issues around strategizing in an organization. Anderson (1999, p. 217) and Beinhocker (1999, p. 98) agree with Hamel that organization change is fundamental for laying strategy. With this in mind, Hamel rightly argues that while rule-setters may survive now, rule-breakers, also known as revolutionaries, have a futuristic strategy that will propel them to be the market leaders in the future. He goes on to explore how organizations have conducted themselves towards success or stagnation and assesses this through what he classifies as the ten principles of liberating revolutionary spirit for the success of an organization (Hamel, 1996, p. 70). Like to