Business strategy with Hamilton Helmer (author of 7 Powers)

My goal in writing this book is to enable you to flexibly navigate the hazardous shoals of strategy development. I am not offering you specific advice for your individual business; rather I am giving you a lens through which to see your strategic landscape. This lens will bring into high relief the critical strategy challenges you must solve. But h

So far, so good. By looking through the lens of the 7 Powers, we have come to a vital insight: Power arrives only on the heels of invention. If you want your business to create value, then action and creativity must come foremost. But success requires more than Power alone; it needs scale. Recall the Fundamental Equation of Strategy: Value = [Marke

As I have underscored throughout these pages, Strategy’s highest calling must be to serve as a real-time strategy compass. To fulfill this role, it must be distilled into a framework that is simple but not simplistic. The first seven chapters built, brick by brick, the 7 Powers. This is your strategy compass. Then in the final two chapters I addres

Power is the core concept of Strategy and of this book, too. It is the Holy Grail of business—notoriously difficult to reach, but well worth your attention and study. And so it is the task of this book to detail the specific conditions that result in Power (Part I: Statics) and how to attain them (Part II: Dynamics).

The answer to the “What?” question provides a vital insight into Dynamics: Power comes on the heels of invention, be it in products, processes, brands or business models. However, most invention is merely a manifestation of operational excellence and thus not immune to the arbitraging actions of competition. So in this formative period, as your inv

You have now reviewed six of the 7 Powers. This chapter will complete your tour by discussing the final type, Process Power. I save it until last because it is rare. I will use the Toyota Motor Corporation as a case.

“What must you do to get there?” Scale Economies. With this first Power type, you must simultaneously pursue a business model that promises Scale Economies (industry economics), while at the same time offering up a product differentially attractive enough to pull in customers and gain relative share (competitive position). Network Economies. Here t