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The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business
by
Are you at risk of being trapped in an uncompetitive business?
Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now.
In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks t ...more
Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now.
In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks t ...more
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Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
June 4th 2013
by Harvard Business Review Press
(first published May 14th 2013)
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Start your review of The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business

O mundo mudou e a estratégia também. Rita McGrath desenvolve um argumento extremamente relevante para a atual realidade: organizações não tem mais vantagens competitivas sustentáveis e devem se orientar a construir vantagens competitivas transitórias. Neste contexto, a reconfiguração é continua, o desligamento de negócios que já não performam é necessário mas pode ser feito de forma saudável, e alocação de recursos deve considerar não somente os negócios atuais mas também negócios que serão sign
...more

Note: After a few questions from folk I've taken some time to write out my thoughts. You can find them over in the post The Myth of Sustainable Competitive Advantage.
The book presents a couple of simple ideas around that fact that in a rapidly changing market you need to have a dynamic approach to strategy. It's based on some academic work that looked at a few top performing companies ("outliers" as the book calls them) over the late 90s through to the late 2000s.
The book has all the usual prob ...more
The book presents a couple of simple ideas around that fact that in a rapidly changing market you need to have a dynamic approach to strategy. It's based on some academic work that looked at a few top performing companies ("outliers" as the book calls them) over the late 90s through to the late 2000s.
The book has all the usual prob ...more

May 12, 2017
Claus Mossbeck
added it
A big fan of Rita's work, a great place to start.
...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

Michael Porter defined Competitive Advantage. Rita Gunther McGrath proclaims that we have entered a new era of
transient competitive advantage
-- exploiting short-lived opportunities with speed and decisiveness.
In today's market you need to think of customer "jobs to be done," rather than rigid markets influenced by supply and demand.The author uses the Jim Collins approach of identifying outlier companies who have sustained growth for a decade by using principles of transient competitive ad ...more

Check out my full review here:
https://confessionsofabookgeek.com/20...
Author Rita Gunther McGrath is described in her Twitter bio as being a strategy and innovation expert and a Top 10 business thinker. Hefty credentials by any standards.
I found this to be a very interesting read that touches on some truly game-changing concepts, as well as sharing intriguing insights, into the world of super-successful businesses. I'm not sure just yet how adaptable these concepts are for regular small and med ...more
https://confessionsofabookgeek.com/20...
Author Rita Gunther McGrath is described in her Twitter bio as being a strategy and innovation expert and a Top 10 business thinker. Hefty credentials by any standards.
I found this to be a very interesting read that touches on some truly game-changing concepts, as well as sharing intriguing insights, into the world of super-successful businesses. I'm not sure just yet how adaptable these concepts are for regular small and med ...more

This is a collection of some essays/lectures organized around the idea competition will force firms to continually seek new advantages rather than relying upon persistent advantage in relatively stable industries. The ideais not new but has been central to how ideas of competition and advantage have been evolving for the last three decades. The notion is that while it is naturally that firms and entrepreneurs will seek to develop a successful business model, sticking with that model, once establ
...more

Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath is one of today's most important business strategy experts. "The End of Competitive Advantage" is based on a compelling premise: that the traditional view of competitive advantage is no longer viable in today's marketplace.
As innovation accelerates, says McGrath, companies must recognize that a market advantage is transient. This means that decision-makers must reconfigure their organizations to quickly move on opportunities and to ditch de ...more
As innovation accelerates, says McGrath, companies must recognize that a market advantage is transient. This means that decision-makers must reconfigure their organizations to quickly move on opportunities and to ditch de ...more

Some entertaining stories to bolster the author's points but they led me to question the leadership more than the strategy or competition. The last chapter is worth the read. It personalizes what is necessary to take advantage in this business economy.
...more

Not only a thought provoking piece, this book also provides practical steps and necessary components to surf on the continuous wave of transient advantages.
My favorite chapter is building an innovation proficiency where Rita McGrath shows how to develop a rubric to categorize a pipeline of innovative ideas.
I also appreciate her idea of going beyond certain industry and examine potential competitors/threats in a broader arenas. Related to this, young people need to be broadly -gaged as they are ...more
My favorite chapter is building an innovation proficiency where Rita McGrath shows how to develop a rubric to categorize a pipeline of innovative ideas.
I also appreciate her idea of going beyond certain industry and examine potential competitors/threats in a broader arenas. Related to this, young people need to be broadly -gaged as they are ...more

This is the first piece of foundational strategy work I have seen post porter's work. McGrath observations around the dangers that face companies that are comfortable in operating in stability is reality not comprehend by many organizations. Her idea of waves of strategy and competing in arenas are also dead on. She lays down the critical foundation for new ways of approaching strategy (e.g. the caterpillar's edge) - I am personally grateful for her contribution to the field. This is a must read
...more

Arenas de competição são batalhas enquanto os setores de atividade sao a guerra como um todo.
Estabelecer a relação entre segmento ( guerra) e oferta e localizacao geografica( batalha)
Estratégias diferentes para as diferentes batalhas.
Vantagem competitiva transitoria.
Nas estrstégias setoriais valem estrategia de priduto, tecnológica e etc; nas arenas as vantagens são mais efemeras tipo nivel de relacionamento e experiencias( qual tarefa vou resolver)
Estabelecer a relação entre segmento ( guerra) e oferta e localizacao geografica( batalha)
Estratégias diferentes para as diferentes batalhas.
Vantagem competitiva transitoria.
Nas estrstégias setoriais valem estrategia de priduto, tecnológica e etc; nas arenas as vantagens são mais efemeras tipo nivel de relacionamento e experiencias( qual tarefa vou resolver)

The book has some interesting ideas about how innovation and strategy should be approached by companies in environments of high uncertainty and rapid change, but the ideas are only briefly described. It doesn't give much details nor is really concrete. Examples are scattered and not well explained. In my opinion, Clayton Christensen's and Scott Anthony's books and articles are much more insightful about this subject matter.
...more

Refreshed version of BCG Growth Share matrix. New insights include
* Continuous Reconfig
* Thoughts on disengaging parts of businesses
* Asset Debt (not NPV): investment needed to keep the asset competitive
* Treating resource allocation as hostage problem
Examples are marginal. infosys and cognizant are not innovative - they are IT bodyshops built on H visa. Other examples are has been stories (Nokia, Sony, Kodak...).
* Continuous Reconfig
* Thoughts on disengaging parts of businesses
* Asset Debt (not NPV): investment needed to keep the asset competitive
* Treating resource allocation as hostage problem
Examples are marginal. infosys and cognizant are not innovative - they are IT bodyshops built on H visa. Other examples are has been stories (Nokia, Sony, Kodak...).

There are some outstanding strategy books, and there are some strategy bs ones. Unfortunately this one is of the latter. Her writing is dry, and she picked a few quick examples from several companies to back up her points.
If your time is scarce, you might want to strategically allocate the precious resource into something else.
If your time is scarce, you might want to strategically allocate the precious resource into something else.

I reread the book today and I still feel very shallow, not only is it attacking an argument Porter never said, (Porter never says all competitive advantages are sustainable), in terms of phase theory, it's not as good as Moore, worse, she may be borrowing from him. Not the same theory, but much worse. Lots of case studies but I don't think they are evident.
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Christensen's apprentices are unbearable. Copycats, cronies. I don't know if the author has really read Porter. Porter did emphasize a lot ...more
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Christensen's apprentices are unbearable. Copycats, cronies. I don't know if the author has really read Porter. Porter did emphasize a lot ...more
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“What I think it should have done was realize that preparing customers for transitions is just like getting them through the new product adoption process, except in reverse.”
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“references to a few clear and simple strategic priorities, to the importance of building culture and developing talent, and to leveraging a few core capabilities.”
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