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Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World
How to succeed in an era of ecosystem-based strategies and tools for offense, defense, timing, and leadership in a changing competitive landscape.
The basis of competition is changing. Are you prepared? Rivalry is shifting from well-defined industries to broader automobiles to mobility platforms; banking to fintech; television broadcasting to video streaming. Your competitors are coming from new directions and pursuing different goals from those of your familiar rivals. In this world, succeeding with the old rules can mean losing the new game. Winning the Right Game introduces the concepts, tools, and frameworks necessary to confront the threat of ecosystem disruption and to develop the strategies that will let your organization play ecosystem offense.
To succeed in this world, you need to change your perspective on competition, growth, and leadership. In this book, strategy expert Ron Adner offers a new way of thinking, illustrating breakthrough ideas with compelling cases. How did a strategy of ecosystem defense save Wayfair and Spotify from being crushed by giants Amazon and Apple? How did Oprah Winfrey redraw industry boundaries to transition from television host to multimedia mogul? How did a shift to an alignment mindset enable Microsoft's cloud-based revival? Each was rooted in a new approach to competitors, partners, and timing that you can apply to your own organization. For today's leaders the difference between success and failure is no longer simply winning, but rather being sure that you are winning the right game.
The basis of competition is changing. Are you prepared? Rivalry is shifting from well-defined industries to broader automobiles to mobility platforms; banking to fintech; television broadcasting to video streaming. Your competitors are coming from new directions and pursuing different goals from those of your familiar rivals. In this world, succeeding with the old rules can mean losing the new game. Winning the Right Game introduces the concepts, tools, and frameworks necessary to confront the threat of ecosystem disruption and to develop the strategies that will let your organization play ecosystem offense.
To succeed in this world, you need to change your perspective on competition, growth, and leadership. In this book, strategy expert Ron Adner offers a new way of thinking, illustrating breakthrough ideas with compelling cases. How did a strategy of ecosystem defense save Wayfair and Spotify from being crushed by giants Amazon and Apple? How did Oprah Winfrey redraw industry boundaries to transition from television host to multimedia mogul? How did a shift to an alignment mindset enable Microsoft's cloud-based revival? Each was rooted in a new approach to competitors, partners, and timing that you can apply to your own organization. For today's leaders the difference between success and failure is no longer simply winning, but rather being sure that you are winning the right game.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published October 5, 2021
84 people are currently reading
342 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 17, 2022
As a former strategy management consultant, I was expecting to read a lot of the same fodder around ecosystems - we need to think beyond industries, we need to be more innovative etc, etc. Adner's book certainly hits on this but with a new perspective. He takes new approaches analysis of to age old failure stories - like Kodak, and shines light on easy to follow examples of success that show give concrete ideas for how to not only pursue ecosystem strategy but how to make sure you're choosing the right strategy as you do so (so as to play the right game). Adner's book is easy to follow, gripping in its case studies, and provides tools and frameworks for how you can do it yourself. I wish I had this book 4 years ago when working with my clients but I will be taking the book and lessons learned throughout my career as a strategist moving forward.
October 18, 2025
To align and execute. To understand and execute. To lead and follow. To architect or product.
April 5, 2024
The name is definitely a "click bait", but I like the book.
December 4, 2021
As companies seek to expand and extend their ecosystems, execs need a more sophisticated and nuanced approach to fit and value. This book and author are on the leading edge of ecosystem strategy 2.0.
August 7, 2025
Ron Adner has put up a great work related to business as an ecosystem.
I have read this book after completing the previous book - THE WIDE LENS.
The EcoSystem strategy is great.
I have understood and researched marketplaces and their dynamics.
But Ron Adner has filled the gap, marketplaces are simply a small subset of the entire business ecosystems.
Ron Adner has successfully explained the demise of Nokia, Kodak, and Microsoft in the mobile space, and he also dispelled the myth that big companies are bad at execution.
Big companies are capable of doing it, but business ecosystems come with a unique set of risks
The Co-Innovation Risk and the Value Chain Adoption Risk
Both of which have never been captured before.
In Product Management, Marty Cagan captured the four product management risks of
Business Viability Risk
Usability Risk
Feasibility Risk
Value Risk
and Ethics Risk
But the first book - The WIDE LENS from Ron Adner addresses this issue head-on - and adds the two risks and the business blind spot, where the business assumes that its product exists in isolation and assumes that its consumers exist in isolation.
They assume that the business, their product, and their customer exist in a single room where the transaction takes place.
But the reality is that they exist in an ecosystem, with more than 10 - 20 different stakeholders., This is a value adoption risk; even if one stakeholder does not win, the entire chain breaks.
The author also talks about the product and that it does not exist in isolation; the product also exists with 10 -20 other products that work in tandem with each other to produce the final value to the end user.
This ecosystem of products, even if one of them is missing, the rest of the products must wait at the traffic signal till all the others innovate in the chain.
This is incredible insight; his blog is much more impressive. This actually completes my understanding of startups and businesses as ecosystems and not stand-alone companies.
I have previously read about ecosystems from WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM - about how the ecosystems thrive on coral reefs and are self-sustaining for generations.
Finally, I will be reading these two books multiple times over, and they are worth reading again.
I have read this book after completing the previous book - THE WIDE LENS.
The EcoSystem strategy is great.
I have understood and researched marketplaces and their dynamics.
But Ron Adner has filled the gap, marketplaces are simply a small subset of the entire business ecosystems.
Ron Adner has successfully explained the demise of Nokia, Kodak, and Microsoft in the mobile space, and he also dispelled the myth that big companies are bad at execution.
Big companies are capable of doing it, but business ecosystems come with a unique set of risks
The Co-Innovation Risk and the Value Chain Adoption Risk
Both of which have never been captured before.
In Product Management, Marty Cagan captured the four product management risks of
Business Viability Risk
Usability Risk
Feasibility Risk
Value Risk
and Ethics Risk
But the first book - The WIDE LENS from Ron Adner addresses this issue head-on - and adds the two risks and the business blind spot, where the business assumes that its product exists in isolation and assumes that its consumers exist in isolation.
They assume that the business, their product, and their customer exist in a single room where the transaction takes place.
But the reality is that they exist in an ecosystem, with more than 10 - 20 different stakeholders., This is a value adoption risk; even if one stakeholder does not win, the entire chain breaks.
The author also talks about the product and that it does not exist in isolation; the product also exists with 10 -20 other products that work in tandem with each other to produce the final value to the end user.
This ecosystem of products, even if one of them is missing, the rest of the products must wait at the traffic signal till all the others innovate in the chain.
This is incredible insight; his blog is much more impressive. This actually completes my understanding of startups and businesses as ecosystems and not stand-alone companies.
I have previously read about ecosystems from WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM - about how the ecosystems thrive on coral reefs and are self-sustaining for generations.
Finally, I will be reading these two books multiple times over, and they are worth reading again.
August 21, 2023
In brief, this book is fantastic. While management books often reiterate the same set of old ideas, this book is full of fresh ideas about innovation, strategy, and technology. Beyond being full of great insights, the book provides very helpful frameworks and actionable advice. What I liked most about the book is that it really changed my thinking. While I am very familiar with some of the cases and industries discussed in the book, it provided a genuinely novel take on them that made me think of these as I had never done before. In brief, I learned a ton. I was also happy to see how powerful and applicable the provided frameworks were. The frameworks have the power to inform one’s understanding of various companies and industries – be it autonomous cars or the brand of Oprah Winfrey,
It is worth noting that Ron Adner is also THE person to write this book. While the term thought leader is subject to hyperinflation, Ron Adner deserves that title. He has been spearheading the thinking on technology strategy and ecosystems for more than two decades. Beyond being an outstanding academic, and teaching senior executives at the best business schools on earth, Ron Adner’s work has also shaped the strategies of major corporations and governmental projects, including Operation Warpspeed, which ensured the wicked-fast development, manufacturing, and delivery of the COVID-19 vaccines.
I recommend this book to a variety of groups. To name just a few: To managers in technology companies who need to improve their operations and rethink their strategy, to entrepreneurs who are looking for a great niche and need to think about how to scale up their operation, and to scholars who want to better understand industry architecture, technology strategy, and ecosystem.
PS: Having enjoyed reading the book a lot, I also bought the audiobook as I wanted to listen to it again. I highly recommend it. It is exceptionally well produced. The text is adjusted, and explanations were added so that one can actually understand even complex passages when simply listening to them. Also, Ron Adner reads it himself, so one gets great insights right from the author.
It is worth noting that Ron Adner is also THE person to write this book. While the term thought leader is subject to hyperinflation, Ron Adner deserves that title. He has been spearheading the thinking on technology strategy and ecosystems for more than two decades. Beyond being an outstanding academic, and teaching senior executives at the best business schools on earth, Ron Adner’s work has also shaped the strategies of major corporations and governmental projects, including Operation Warpspeed, which ensured the wicked-fast development, manufacturing, and delivery of the COVID-19 vaccines.
I recommend this book to a variety of groups. To name just a few: To managers in technology companies who need to improve their operations and rethink their strategy, to entrepreneurs who are looking for a great niche and need to think about how to scale up their operation, and to scholars who want to better understand industry architecture, technology strategy, and ecosystem.
PS: Having enjoyed reading the book a lot, I also bought the audiobook as I wanted to listen to it again. I highly recommend it. It is exceptionally well produced. The text is adjusted, and explanations were added so that one can actually understand even complex passages when simply listening to them. Also, Ron Adner reads it himself, so one gets great insights right from the author.
December 10, 2023
Another opportunity to learn great lessons, this book is well worth it. Sometimes we directors pursue a goal and achieve it, but everything goes wrong: we pursue the wrong goal!
This book tells us many stories, of failures and successes. Understanding the Kodak case was perhaps the most illustrative, but it also speaks of Microsoft, Apple, Google, GE and many other companies and strategies, some failed and others successful.
I think the most important concept of the book is to understand the “ecosystem” in which the company operates, and without which nothing happens, we do not achieve the result. And the treatment with the ecosystem (where a director is among peers) is different from when he is in the company that treats him as if he were “someone important.”
Many failures occurred when two giants want to be the leader of the ecosystem, and their “egos” make nothing happen as it should.
When part of the ecosystem changes, how to defend yourself? When and how to attack to obtain advantages? These are some of the themes of the book.
Again (like the previous book) the author talks about the importance of collectivity: everyone being towards a goal: of course employees but also other members of the ecosystem.
For me this book has 5 stars.
This book tells us many stories, of failures and successes. Understanding the Kodak case was perhaps the most illustrative, but it also speaks of Microsoft, Apple, Google, GE and many other companies and strategies, some failed and others successful.
I think the most important concept of the book is to understand the “ecosystem” in which the company operates, and without which nothing happens, we do not achieve the result. And the treatment with the ecosystem (where a director is among peers) is different from when he is in the company that treats him as if he were “someone important.”
Many failures occurred when two giants want to be the leader of the ecosystem, and their “egos” make nothing happen as it should.
When part of the ecosystem changes, how to defend yourself? When and how to attack to obtain advantages? These are some of the themes of the book.
Again (like the previous book) the author talks about the importance of collectivity: everyone being towards a goal: of course employees but also other members of the ecosystem.
For me this book has 5 stars.
August 25, 2024
Основа конкуренції змінюється. Чи ви до цього готові? З чітко окреслених галузей зі зрозумілими товарами та послугами боротьба перекочувала до ширших екосистем з найрізноманітнішими ціннісними пропозиціями: з автомобілів до мобільних рішень, із банкінгу до фінансово-технологічних платформ, з аптек до центрів контролю за здоров’ям, із конвеєрних ліній до розумних фабрик. Куди не глянь, кордони галузей стираються — і дедалі швидше.
Цікава книга з актуальними кейсами останніх років, які дуже добре розібрані. До прикладу з усіх сторін кричать про приклад Кодак — але саме в книзі все розібрано дуже детально. Кодак переміг в боротьбі, але виграв не в ту гру.
Nokia програла не традиційним телефонним компаніям, а новому мобільному програмному забезпеченню. Служби таксі поступилися не конкурентам із такими ж ліцензіями, а платформам для спільних поїздок. Природа конкуренції і конкурентів змінюється
У минулому підрив означав, що вискочки використовували цифрові бізнес-моделі, щоб витіснити існуючі компанії. Сьогодні індустрійний підрив може прийти зі сторони звідки ми 100% не очікуємо (всі пішли в діджітал), але це не стається одномоментно. І саме про це книга, як підривати індустрії так як захищатись. Моя оцінка 5 з 5.
Цікава книга з актуальними кейсами останніх років, які дуже добре розібрані. До прикладу з усіх сторін кричать про приклад Кодак — але саме в книзі все розібрано дуже детально. Кодак переміг в боротьбі, але виграв не в ту гру.
Nokia програла не традиційним телефонним компаніям, а новому мобільному програмному забезпеченню. Служби таксі поступилися не конкурентам із такими ж ліцензіями, а платформам для спільних поїздок. Природа конкуренції і конкурентів змінюється
У минулому підрив означав, що вискочки використовували цифрові бізнес-моделі, щоб витіснити існуючі компанії. Сьогодні індустрійний підрив може прийти зі сторони звідки ми 100% не очікуємо (всі пішли в діджітал), але це не стається одномоментно. І саме про це книга, як підривати індустрії так як захищатись. Моя оцінка 5 з 5.
September 20, 2024
This is a great book for anyone nerding about business strategy and/or business ecosystems. The book studies how certain companies have succeeded in playing the ecosystem game and how others have failed, and theorises on why that is and what future companies must understand to succeed, and to resist being pushed over by competition. There was little of interest to me in the theory itself, other than Adner's view on in which stages of development understanding the ecosystem behaviours are more relevant than in others.
October 2, 2023
Lots of interesting case studies. Some analysis is hard to validate given that it is all done in retrospect and without (at least in this book) a great deal of quantitative rigor. Adner is also somewhat repetitious in places. But the principles he is trying to illustrate here are genuinely interesting and, it seems, quite unique.
December 1, 2022
An interesting read about how businesses survived by leveraging the ecosystem of other businesses and of social dynamics, rather than considering themselves as stand-alone business models.
July 15, 2023
Really enjoyed this book. It’s full of great cases, looks at a variety of different businesses, builds the concepts progressively throughout the book, and will spark new ways of thinking. I especially liked the discussion of what types of leaders thrive in what stages of a company’s evolution. Even better was the condemnation of companies that substitute budgeting for strategy. Such a great follow-up to the Wide Lens book. Highly recommend it and have already done so!
July 23, 2023
If you want to get ahead, read this amazing book carefully. I enjoyed and learned from the success and failure stories of great companies.
December 8, 2024
There’s seemingly good theory here that helps one take examples of corporate actions beyond the obvious or misunderstood. However it seems over-engineered and very hard to apply
January 17, 2022
As a former strategy management consultant, I was expecting to read a lot of the same fodder around ecosystems - we need to think beyond industries, we need to be more innovative etc, etc. Adner's book certainly hits on this but with a new perspective. He takes new approaches analysis of to age old failure stories - like Kodak, and shines light on easy to follow examples of success that show give concrete ideas for how to not only pursue ecosystem strategy but how to make sure you're choosing the right strategy as you do so (so as to play the right game). Adner's book is easy to follow, gripping in its case studies, and provides tools and frameworks for how you can do it yourself. I wish I had this book 4 years ago when working with my clients but I will be taking the book and lessons learned throughout my career as a strategist moving forward.
August 25, 2022
If you want to start o managing 2B business and your businesses involved partners (usually always), this is very insightful book to take in mind developing business is not the same as developing ecosystem.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews