Leading the Revolution by Gary Hamel

Leading the Revolution by Gary Hamel, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 2000, p 333 ($29.95)

Excerpts:
p xi
'Indeed, the real story of Silicon valley is not 'e' but 'i' not electronic commerce but innovation and imagination. What distinguishes many of the dotcom companies is not there technical provess (you won't find any billion dollar R&D budgets, but their imagination. They are young, hungry, and totally devoid of tradition. It is the power of 'i', rather than 'e' that separates the winners from the loosers in the 21st century economy.
Moreover, companies like Nokia, Enron and Schwab have shown themselves capable of continually reinventing themselves and their industries. '

p 11

To fully realize the promise of our new age, each of us must become a dreamer, as well as a doer. In the age of progress, dreams were often little more than fantasies. Today, as never before, they are doorways to new realities. Our collective selves - our organisations - must also learn to dream. In many organizations there has been a massive failure of collective imagination. How else can one account for the fact that so many organizations have been caught flat-footed by the future?
...
Somewhere out there is a bullet with your company's name on it. Somewhere out there is a competitor, unborn and unknown, that will render your strategy obsolete. You can't dodge the bullet - you're going to have to shoot first. You're going to have to out-innovate the innovators. Those who live by the sword will be shot by those who don't.

p 13
Organizational learning and knowledge menagement are first cousins to continuous improvement. They are more about getting better than getting different....

p 28

The New Innovation Agenda

Continuous Improvement and Nonlinear innovation
Product and process innovation and Business Concept Innovation
‘Releasing’ wealth and Creating wealth
Serendipity and Capability
Visionaries and Activists
Scientists, marketers and Silicon Valley


p 149

You can’t use an old map to find a new land

p 188
How to Start an Insurrection

Step 1: Build a point of view (POV)
What is changing in the world?
What opportunities do these changes make possible?
What are the business concepts that would profitably exploit these changes?
P 191
Step 2: Write a Manifesto
p 194
Step 3: Create a Coalition
Who is already in your orbit? Surely you’ve already been talking to some folks about your revolutionary ideas.
Are there staff groups or task forces in the company that might be naturally inclined toward your point of view?
Are there any cross-company initiatives you could tap into?
Who across the organization might have a stake in the success of your campaign?
What are the news groups or e-mail distribution lists you might hijack?
p 196
Step 4: Pick your targets and pick your moments
p 198
Step 5: Co-opt and Neutralize
p 199
Step 6: Find a translator
p 201
Step 7: Win Small, Win Early, Win Often
p 202
Step 8: Isolate, Infiltrate, Integrate

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, London. 2004. p 324

Excerpts:

p 15
‘Hmmm,’ Baba crushed an ice cube between his teeth. ‘Do you want to know what your father thinks about sin?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I’ll tell you,’ Baba said, ‘but first understand this and understand it now, Amir. You’ll never learn anything of value from those bearded idiots.’
‘You mean Mullah Fatiullah Khan?’
Baba gestured with his glass. The eyes clinked. ‘I mean all of them. Piss on the beards of all those self-righteous monkeys.’
I began to giggle. The image of Baba pissing on the beard of any monkey, self-righteous or otherwise, was too much.
‘They do nothing but thumb their prayer beads and recite a book written in a tongue they don’t even understand.’ He took a sip. ‘God help us all if Afghanistan ever falls on their hands.’

p 16
‘When you kill a man, you steal a life.’ Baba said. ‘You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?’
…
‘There is no act more wretched than stealing, Amir.’ Baba said. ‘A man who takes whats not his to take, be it a life or a loaf of naan… I spit on such a man. And if I ever cross paths with him, God help him. Do you understand?’
I found the idea of Baba clobbering a thief both exhilarating and terribly frightening. ‘Yes, Baba.’
‘If there’s a God out there, then I would hope he has more important things to attend to then my drinking scotch or eating pork. Now hop down. All this talk about sin has made me thirsty again.’

----
p 169
On those night, we’d each roll to our side of the bed and let our own saviour take us away. Soraya’s was sleep. Mine, as always, was a book.

p. 173
for Taliban – football game between Kabut & Mazar-e-sharif, when Kabul made goal – an eighteen year old boy carrying Kalashinikov, would hit the butt if anybody cheered for that.

p. 181
Afghan way of dying – landmine

p. 190
everyday I thank Allah that I am alive, not because I fear death, but because my wife has a husband and my son is not an orphan.

p. 201
As a afghan, it is better to be miserable than rude.

p. 241
Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence.

p. 249
ethnic cleansing.

p. 277
There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.