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Paradoxically, management and hierarchy can help companies become agile and adaptive.

…meeting the demands of the current environment has made managerial authority even more essential than it was in earlier periods.

Managers need to move away from specifying methods and processes, in favor of defining the principles they want people to apply or the goals they want people to meet.

In the knowledge economy, the main task for top management is to define and implement the organizational rules of the game.

…the kernel of truth in the bossless company narrative is that sometimes peer organization and peer monitoring beats supervision by middle managers.

When, then, do so many people choose self-employment? Because they value the flexibility, autonomy, sense of fulfillment, and other nonmonetary benefits.

…achieving consensus, articulating a vision, and getting buy-in are mundane management tasks.

…even in a radically decentralized form, management doesn’t really go away.

…very flat hierarchies with a high degree of employee empowerment can work – but only under special circumstances.

…flatter structures can work for companies where no significant amount of coordination is required of managers. But they don’t work for most companies.