Gary Hamel Quotes

• In most companies, the formal hierarchy is a matter of public record – it’s easy to discover who’s in charge of what. By contrast, natural leaders don’t appear on any organization chart.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Contrast, Leaders

• In a democracy, you don’t need anyone’s permission to form a new political party, publish a politically charged article, or organize a ‘tea party.’ And in open markets, individuals are free to buy and invest as they see fit.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Article, Organize

• If organized religion has become less relevant, it’s not because churches have held fast to their creedal beliefs – it’s because they’ve held fast to their conventional structures, programs, roles and routines.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Organized, Relevant

• I’m not one of those professors whose office is encased floor-to-ceiling with books. By the way, I think academics do this to intimidate their visitors.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Office, Intimidate

• I’m a capitalist by conviction and profession. I believe the best economic system is one that rewards entrepreneurship and risk-taking, maximizes customer choice, uses markets to allocate scarce resources and minimizes the regulatory burden on business.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Customer, Conviction

• I was frustrated for a long time with my colleagues in the business school world and with so many management authors who didn’t really see themselves as innovators. They were glorified journalists.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Colleagues, Innovators

• I live a half mile from the San Andreas fault – a fact that bubbles up into my consciousness every time some other part of the world experiences an earthquake. I sometimes wonder whether this subterranean sense of impending disaster is at least partly responsible for Silicon Valley’s feverish, get-it-done-yesterday work norms.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Disaster, Earthquake

• During the ten years I lived in the U.K., I frequently attended an Anglican church just outside of London. I enjoyed the energetic singing and the thoughtful homilies. And yet, I found it easy to be a pew warmer, a consumer, a back row critic.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Consumer, Thoughtful

• Building human-centered organizations doesn’t imply a return to the paternalistic, corporate welfare practices of the 19th century. Most of us don’t want to be nannied.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Welfare, Organizations

• At the heart of every faith system is a bargain: on one side there is the comfort that comes from a narrative that suggests human life has cosmic significance, and on the other a duty to yield to moral commands that can, in the moment, seem rather inconvenient.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Narrative, Cosmic

• As the great grandchildren of the industrial revolution, we have learned, at last, that the heedless pursuit of more is unsustainable and, ultimately, unfulfilling. Our planet, our security, our sense of equanimity and our very souls demand something better, something different.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Demand, Planet

• An uplifting sense of purpose is more than an impetus for individual accomplishment, it is also a necessary insurance policy against expediency and impropriety.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Expediency, Insurance

• As human beings, we are the only organisms that create for the sheer stupid pleasure of doing so. Whether it’s laying out a garden, composing a new tune on the piano, writing a bit of poetry, manipulating a digital photo, redecorating a room, or inventing a new chili recipe – we are happiest when we are creating.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Recipe, Composing

• An adaptable company is one that captures more than its fair share of new opportunities. It’s always redefining its ‘core business’ in ways that open up new avenues for growth.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Captures, Core

• An employee who’s one of hundreds, rather than one of a few, is unlikely to feel personally responsible for helping the organization adapt and change.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Employee, Personally

• All too often, legacy management practices reflexively perpetuate the past – by over-weighting the views of long-tenured executives, by valuing conformance more highly than creativity and by turning tired industry nostrums into sacred truths.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Perpetuate, Sacred

• A well-conceived product excels at what it does. It’s close to being functionally flawless – like a Ziploc bag, a radio from Tivoli Audio, a Philips Sonicare toothbrush, a Nespresso coffee maker or Google’s home page.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Bag, Radio

• A titled leader relies heavily on positional power to get things done; a natural leader is able to mobilize others without the whip of formal authority.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Mobilize, Authority

• You can’t build an adaptable organization without adaptable people – and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Organization, Build

• When a politician bends the truth or a CEO breaks a promise, trust takes a beating.

  Gary Hamel

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Promise, Beating

Gary Hamel (62)

Birth:	1954
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Author, Consultant, Professor, Speaker

About

Dr. Gary P. Hamel is an American management expert. He is a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm based in Chicago. He graduated from Andrews University in 1975. He has been was Visiting Professor of International Business at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School. He earned his Ph.D. in 1990. He is a visiting Professor of Strategic Management at London Business School. He is also a member of the Reliance Innovation Council formed by Reliance Industries Limited, India. He has written several books include: The Future of Management, What Matters Now, and Leading the Revolution.

Related Authors

• Cameron Jace
• Cupcake Brown
• Samuel Beckett
• David McCullough
• Nadège Richards
• Noah Levine
• Michael Davis
• Robert Sheckley
• Henry S. Haskins
• Ally Sheedy

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 24th November

Births

• 1957 - Denise Crosby
• 1934 - Alfred Schnittke
• 1925 - Simon Van Der Meer
• 1925 - William F. Buckley, Jr.
• 1957 - Denise Crosby

Deaths

• 1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald
• 2005 - Pat Morita
• 2004 - Warren Spahn
• 1957 - Diego Rivera
• 1991 - Paul Charles Caravello