Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age

The best-selling authors of The High-Potential Leader dissect the changing nature of competitive advantage to reveal the secrets of algorithm-driven digital giants, from team building to strategic investments, while revealing what today’s companies must do to compete effectively. Illustrations.
„How do you gain an edge in the digital age? In this lively, accessible guide, Ram Charan, bestselling author and advisor to some of the world's top CEOs, dissects the changing nature of competitive advantage, illustrating what it takes for companies--old and new alike--to compete against digital giants like Amazon, Alibaba, and Google. In today's business world, good strategy isn't just about preserving market share or building moats to ward off competitors. In the digital age, the most successful companies look at everything through a single lens: How can we create a better end-to-end consumer experience? As Jeff Bezos says, “When given the choice of obsessing over competitors or obsessing over customers, we always obsess over customers.„ Filled with behind-the-scenes stories of companies like Netflix, Amazon, Fidelity, and Alibaba, Rethinking Competitive Advantage highlights the tools these behemoths have relied on to reimagine customer experience and build competitive advantage: platform, data, and ecosystem. These companies don't just develop channels of distribution, they constantly crunch numbers, use algorithms to improve products, and create an ecosystem with outside sellers and their supply chain, where a stream of new innovations reinvigoratesthe customer's experience and creates new sources of revenue. Today's companies imagine market spaces that don't yet exist, ones with the potential to grow 10x or 100x--and they are willing to spend cash now on the promise of exponential profits down theroad. To execute their objectives, these companies build strong, nimble, team-centered workforces that upend traditional hierarchy, forming a “social engine„ that drives innovation under visionary leaders. Whether you're in the C-Suite of a Fortune 500 company or brainstorming the next digital start-up from your garage, Rethinking Competitive Advantage is the ultimate primer on competitive advantage today, revealing the “secret sauce„ behind some of the world's leading companies--and showing you what youmust do to compete“--
How do you gain an edge in the digital world order? &;Another book for the ages from a master! . . . Particularly insightful is his emphasis on how the end-to-end individual consumer experience will separate winners from losers in our new digital age.&;&;Fred Hassan, chairman, Caret Group; former CEO, Schering-Plough and PharmaciaThe old ways of creating competitive advantage for your business&;such as building moats to ward off competitors&;have become dangerous. Giants like Amazon and Alibaba are creating vast new market spaces through a deft combination of tools like machine learning and business savvy that reimagines customer experiences while generating immense shareholder value. A handful of traditional companies, including Fidelity Investments, Walmart, and B2W, have adopted these new approaches to reinvigorate their businesses. Most, however, are stalled&;and the clock is running out. In this lively, accessible guide, Ram Charan, bestselling author and adviser to some of the world&;s top CEOs and boards, redefines competitive advantage for the digital-first era, offering a set of new rules to get ahead:&; Create an ecosystem with third-party partners to revolutionize and personalize the customer experience.&; Empower teams focused on a single task, building a &;social engine&; that drives constant innovation, fast execution, and customer satisfaction.&; Attract funders who understand the big picture: that beyond a certain scale, major upfront spending will turn into a cash-generation machine. Filled with stories that peek behind the curtain of digital behemoths as well as traditional companies that have transformed their organizations, Rethinking Competitive Advantage offers concrete advice and methods to help you conceive of new market spaces and moneymaking models. Competing against digital giants might seem daunting, if not impossible. The necessary computing power is within any company&;s reach. By borrowing from these digital winners&; playbooks, traditional companies and upstarts alike can gain an upper hand. Whether you&;re in the C-suite or brainstorming the next big idea from your garage, Rethinking Competitive Advantage is the ultimate guide to creating competitive advantage today.