Yet unlike the laws of physics, the laws of management are neither foreordained
nor eternal—and a good thing, too, for the equipment of management is now groaning
under the strain of a load it was never meant to carry. Whiplash change, fleeting
advantages, technological disruptions, seditious competitors, fractured markets,
omnipotent customers, rebellious shareholders—these 21st century challenges are
testing the design limits of organizations around the world, and are exposing the
limitations of a management model that has failed to keep pace with the times.