Value Migration: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the Competition

by Adrian J. Slywotzky

This work presents a strategic concept aimed at enabling managers to understand and anticipate where the value in their business is headed. It identifies a dramatic shift in the business landscape in which new aggressive and successful companies have taken on the established giants - not with new products or innovative technology but with superior business designs. These companies anticipate customer needs and align their business designs - how they select customers, differentiate their offerings, configure their resources, create utilities and go to market - to meet the customer's highest priorities and take revenue and market value from a previously dominant competitor.

Genres: Business, Finance, Nonfiction, Management

327 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Adrian J. Slywotzky (born in 1951) is a consultant and author of several books on economic theory and management. Slywotzky graduated from Harvard College and holds a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked as a consultant since 1979 and is currently a partner at Oliver Wyman.
Slywotzky wrote several books on profitability and growth, namely the bestselling The Profit Zone'.' He is one of the most renowned consultants of the United States and was elected as one of the 25 best consultants in 2000 and 2008. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Lori Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read book on strategy for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.

[Tirath · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was about how consumers change their preferences;
Instead - its broader.
Its about how change causes the market value of an industry or a company to change.

Great stuff on the value migration from steel to other materials such as plastic or aluminium
On Blast oxygen furnaces to mini mills/ EAFs
On ground robusta beans consumed at home to a luxurious experience of a barista making a coffee for you.
On how computing became personal and ought to have been IBM's domain, but instead Microsoft and Intel got a big chunk of a very different form of computing.

Interestingly; the book implies that change comes from odd places; and companies and management have to battle inertia and resource allocation to stay relevant. And sometimes you can; and sometimes you cant.

Hence, the ideas from the book are great lessons for managers and investors both.

[Pratik Kothari · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful read, highly recommended. The book provides with a framework to think through the patterns of shifting value in consumer, business & industry. It also discusses 7-8 cases in detail across pharma, steel, tech, consumer, coffee, others. Timeless.

[Mark Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adrian Slywotzky provides the best framework for helping corporate titans overcome "institutional memory." Slywotzky's Value Migration (in-flows and out-flows) gives executives an early warning system that indicates when it is time to transform their business and recapture value. Critical in Slywotzky's work is his research into the benefit of being a "first mover." In many cases, second and third place companies never realize an appropriate return for their investments when they act slowly to changing market or customer conditions. Slywotsky's Value Migration is timeless. Published in 1996, the book predates Internet 2.0, but its lessons are still valuable and relevant today.

[Tony Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best marketing book I read at Fuqua School of Business. If clients leave ... if employees leave ... you better wake up. It's time to stop value from migrating AWAY from your business. Tony McLean Brown www.HappyGuidetoaShortLife.com

[Dwight Walker]

need help beating competition - usually large IT companies or telcos who take all my market when they catch up

[Test · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Rahul Rajamuthiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty long yet a comprehensive view of business movements

[Sanjeev Panda]

Outstanding book, a must read for long term investors, business consultants and industry analysts. Multi year value migration explained well in some of the sectors, worth a read !