Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption
80 Harvard Business Review
|
October 2008
|
hbr.org
Art Credit
STRATEGY in a World of
Constant Disruption
A company’s bid to rally an industry ecosystem around a new competitive view is an uncertain gambit. But the right strategic approaches and the availability of modern digital infrastructures improve the odds for success.
SHAPING
Jonathan Bartlett
G
by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison
GOOGLE GRABS HEADLINES
by announcing forays into the telecom space, prompting competitive responses from AT&T, Verizon, and other leading network service providers. At the same time, Google continues to help shape the advertising business through AdSense. And Facebook and Salesforce.com – each in very different parts of the high-tech world – reveal they are opening up platforms for third-party developers. These initiatives are examples of shaping strategies, which mobilize global ecosystems and transform industries and markets – often dramatically. A shaping strategy is no less than an effort to broadly redefine the terms of competition for a market sector through a positive, galvanizing message that promises benefits to all who adopt the new terms. What Bill Gates did
hbr.org
|
October 2008
|
Harvard Business Review 81
Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption
with Microsoft in the early 1980s is a classic example. In essence, he said that computing power was moving inexorably from centralized mainframes to desktop machines. Companies that wanted to be leaders in the computer industry needed to be on the desktop. It’s one thing to coin a persuasive slogan – “The desktop is the future!” – and something else entirely to get others to invest in fulfilling its promise. In reality, shaping strategies are built upon deep structures, which we describe in this article. We also explain why the moment is ripe for pursuing and benefiting from shaping strategies, thanks to pervasive changes in the global
|
October 2008
|
hbr.org
Art Credit
STRATEGY in a World of
Constant Disruption
A company’s bid to rally an industry ecosystem around a new competitive view is an uncertain gambit. But the right strategic approaches and the availability of modern digital infrastructures improve the odds for success.
SHAPING
Jonathan Bartlett
G
by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison
GOOGLE GRABS HEADLINES
by announcing forays into the telecom space, prompting competitive responses from AT&T, Verizon, and other leading network service providers. At the same time, Google continues to help shape the advertising business through AdSense. And Facebook and Salesforce.com – each in very different parts of the high-tech world – reveal they are opening up platforms for third-party developers. These initiatives are examples of shaping strategies, which mobilize global ecosystems and transform industries and markets – often dramatically. A shaping strategy is no less than an effort to broadly redefine the terms of competition for a market sector through a positive, galvanizing message that promises benefits to all who adopt the new terms. What Bill Gates did
hbr.org
|
October 2008
|
Harvard Business Review 81
Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption
with Microsoft in the early 1980s is a classic example. In essence, he said that computing power was moving inexorably from centralized mainframes to desktop machines. Companies that wanted to be leaders in the computer industry needed to be on the desktop. It’s one thing to coin a persuasive slogan – “The desktop is the future!” – and something else entirely to get others to invest in fulfilling its promise. In reality, shaping strategies are built upon deep structures, which we describe in this article. We also explain why the moment is ripe for pursuing and benefiting from shaping strategies, thanks to pervasive changes in the global