"Reengineering is the search for new models of organizing work. Tradition counts for nothing. Reengineering is a new beginning."

Michael Hammer and James Champy, 1994¹

"We must move beyond change and embrace nothing less than the literal abandonment of the conventions that brought us to this point. Eradicate ’change’ from your vocabulary. Substitute ’abandonment’ or ’revolution’ instead."

Tom Peters, 1994²

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

Sir Isaac Newton, 1676³

Which of the above views offers the best guide to successful management in the future? Must everything that has been done and learned up to this point be thrown away? Has nothing useful about good management been discovered from the experiences of the great corporations that have transformed life in this century? Is there no one on whose shoulders those interested in learning about and improving the practice of management can stand? Or is it possible that there is more wisdom in Newton’s 300-year-old advice than in contemporary calls for a complete revolution—can true progress come only from building on the achievements of the past?

If the debate about management was being judged by what people are saying...