The Preface from The Future of Management On Christmas eve, 1968, the Apollo 8 command module became the first human- made object to orbit the moon. During its journey back to earth, a ground n asked his dad, "Who's flying the spacecraft?" when the question was relayed up to the homebound crew, astronaut Bill Anders replied, "I think Sir Isaac Newton is doing most of the driving now Like that curious lad, I'd like to pose a question: Who's managing you company? You might be tempted to answer, "the CEO," or "the executive team," or "all of us in middle management." And you'd be right, but that wouldn't be the whole truth. To a large extent, your company is being managed right now by a small coterie oflong- departed theorists and practitioners who nvented the rules and conventions of management back in the early years of the 20th century. They are the poltergeists who inhabit the musty machinery of management. It is their edicts echoing across the decades, that invisibly shape the way your company allocates resources, sets budgets, distributes power, rewards people, and makes decisions So pervasive is the influence of these patriarchs, that the technology of management varies only slightly from firm to firm. Most companies have a roughly similar management hierarchy (a cascade of EVPs, SVPs, and VPs). They hav analogous control systems, HR practices and planning rituals, and rely on comparable reporting structures and review systems. That's why it's so easy for a CEO to jump from one company to another--the levers and dials of management are more or less the ame in every corporate cockpit. Yet unlike the laws of physics, the laws of management are neither foreordained mor 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, shareholders seditious these 21 century challenges are competitors, fractured markets omnipotent customers, rebellious 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 Think about the great product breakthroughs over the last decade or two that have changed the way we live: the personal computer, the mobile phone, digital music, e-mail, the Internet. Now try to think of a breakthrough in the practice of management that has dramatically that has had a similar impact in the realm of business--anything changed the way large companies are run. Not easy, is it? And therein lies the problem Management is out of date. Like the combustion engine, it's a technology that management--the has largely stopped evolving, and that's not good. Why? Because capacity to marshal resources, lay out plans, program wo and spur effort is central