The future for strategy: An interview with Gary Hamel

Gary Hamel is well known for his forthright and challenging views on international corporate strategy. Together with his colleague, C.K. Prahalad, he has written extensively in Harvard Business Review on the core competence of corporations, competition for competence and, just this year, on strategy as stretch. Interviewed in London by EMJ's Editor, Paul Stonham, he emphasises that inter-corporate competition underlies his view of strategy. Companies compete in three ways -- building core competencies that give products and services unique functionality; building a worldwide distribution and brand infrastructure; and creating product integrity disciplines. It is the first of these -- functionality-enhancing competencies -- that will distinguish the winning companies of the future. Hamel explores core competence further, pointing out that it provides logic for the corporation. He also argues that strategy should be 'stretch' not 'fit', competition should shape industry futures rather than merely position within existing industry boundaries, and resources should be leveraged rather than allocated. Business schools could also benefit from re-examining their core competencies.