What Matters Now

How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious Competition, and Unstoppable Innovation

By: Gary Hamel

Narrated by: Gary Hamel

Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

"This is not a book about one thing. It's not a 300-page dissertation on leadership, teams, or motivation. Instead, it's a multi-faceted agendafor building organizations that can win in world of relentless change, ferocious competition, and unstoppable innovation." (From the Preface)

What Matters Now is Gary Hamel's impassioned plea to rethink the fundamental assumptions we have about management, the meaning of work, and organizational life. He asks, "What are the fundamental, make-or-break issues that will determine whether your organization thrives or dives in the years ahead?" The answer is found in five paramount issues: values, innovation, adaptability, passion, and ideology.

Values: With trust in large organizations at an all time low, there is an urgent need to rebuild the ethical foundations of capitalism. What's required is nothing less than a moral renaissance in business.

Innovation: Innovation is the only defense against margin-crushing competition, and the only way to outgrow a dismal economy. In too many companies, innovation is still a buzzword, rather than the responsibility of every single individual. This must change.

Adaptability: In a world of accelerating change, every company must build an evolutionary advantage. The forces of inertia must be vanquished. The ultimate prize: an organization that is as nimble as change itself.

Passion: In business as in life, the difference between "insipid" and "inspired" is passion. With mediocrity fast becoming a competitive liability, success depends on finding new ways to rouse the human spirit at work.

Ideology: Today, businesses need more than better practices; they need better principles. Bureaucracy and control have had their day. It's time for a new ideology based on freedom and self-determination.

©2012 Gary Hamel (P)2012 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"Gary Hamel has crafted a challenging book that starts with values, celebrates innovation, and concludes by opening up the hierarchies of large companies to unleash the true human potential of the people who work there. This is a book to return to again and again as managers everywhere confront the challenges of orthodoxy, management lethargy, and overly-rigid company processes." (Henry Chesbrough, author, OpenInnovation; professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business)

" What Matters Now lets you in on the five things that will transform your organization—or sink it. It's your choice—put Gary Hamel's book at the top of your to-do list or procrastinate and risk falling farther behind." (Charlene Li, author, Open Leadership; founder of Altimeter Group)

Okay

There are some good insights but for some reason I found it hard to read or keeping interest.

For bureaucracy busting management experts.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Gary is a management guru who has been engaged in redefining management for the 21st century. This is an interesting and dense book that you will probably have to pause sometimes to digest the ideas. He starts the book by giving a snapshot about the current economic scenario. He argues that the economic crisis derivates of a value crisis; a lot of business leaders, specially bankers, have been acting greedy for easy money, tricking the system to secure their own personal interests, deceiving customers and business partners.
He then dives deep into what matters now for business to thrive "in a world of relentless change, ferocious competition and unstoppable innovation". The subjects are: Values, Innovation, Adaptability, Passion and Ideology.
He illustrates about the importance of those subjects with interesting examples of companies that are incorporating unorthodox business practices to unleash innovation while removing bureaucracy.

What other book might you compare What Matters Now to and why?

The Future of Management

Will probably listen to this 4 or 5 times

Excellent job. I see about 150 ways this book can benefit the company I work for

Beautiful

Enjoyed every little recipe for a CEO success. Although I believe bankers will remain bankers since the beginnings of trade.

Great book, from a great author

If you could sum up What Matters Now in three words, what would they be?

Following The Future of Management, G. Hamel makes a great presentation of what are the key elements for success.

"I am a leader! or Am i?" a must read for all

If you ever thought to yourself; "I am a leader! Or Am I a leader? Or can I be a leader? Or am I the best leader I can be?" this book is for you.

This book will show you the good, the bad and the ugly about business life as well as how to turn it around into GREATNESS!

You can not afford not reading this book.

Turn down the volume

What made the experience of listening to What Matters Now the most enjoyable?

The content of the book is very good. I believe the content would be very relevant and useful to MBA students. It however felt as if the reader was screaming, I got very agitated listening to his performance and continuously had to turn down the volume because he kept on raising his voice in excitement. The frustration was exacerbated by the reader's nasal tone of voice. The reader raced through his reading. I believe one need to give the listener time to think about some of the concepts and the reader rushed through them without slowing down when explaining complexities.

What three words best describe Gary Hamel’s performance?

Loud, fast, nasal

A Lecture About Evil Bankers

This book should be titled “A Lecture About Evil Bankers” because the first hour or so is a rampage on the financial meltdown without offering any practical solutions. I thought I had actually downloaded the wrong book and checked the title and description a few times to confirm.

The audio tone is high pitched and annoying.

Typically I would not post such a negative review but this book is more of a miss than a hit and was a waste of time.

Pure bombast

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Better content.

Would you ever listen to anything by Gary Hamel again?

No

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from What Matters Now?

Any additional comments?

Imagine my shock to hear that bankers are greedy, people should have some sort of moral code, and innovation is good.

Worst book I've ever listened to!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Content

Has What Matters Now turned you off from other books in this genre?

I don't think we have a genre for nagging!

What didn’t you like about Gary Hamel’s performance?

Nothing. It was a pain listening to his book

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

"Dude just shut up"
If you are listening to someone stupid, you can walk away, but if you pay that someone, then it hurts.

Any additional comments?

If you want to listen to 8 hours of someone nagging about; "Why Wall Street is making money and I can't" this is the book for you.
This book was suggested by Business Insider and that's why I bought it. It was the worst book I've ever listened to.