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Abstract

The call for revolution has become a standard technique in corporate capitalism. Management fashions and gurus turn revolutionary ideas into saleable packages of corporate consulting. Here, the focus is on the case of Gary Hamel. I show how an individual guru becomes the central symbolic pole of the circulation of revolutionary ideas. Publishing companies, consultancies, universities and different media package and disseminate the revolutionary guru. I suggest that the revolutionary guru helps manage the flexible post-Fordist organisation. The circulation of revolution also entails paradoxes. In Hamel’s case, the call for revolution often, when put into practice, serves the interests of the managers.

Keywords

Capitalism circulation consultants Gary Hamel management fashion management guru revolution

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Branded revolutionaries: Circulated gurus as management tools in soft capitalism

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