7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

For any business person, "Me too' won't do" feels right intuitively. Action, creation, risk-these lie at the root of invention. Business value does not start with bloodless analytics. Passion, monomania and domain mastery fuel invention and so are central. The compelling continuing contribution of founders demonstrates this. Planning rare

Strategy strategy value Strategy Dynamics Strategy Statics industry business market Description Strategy (with a Capital S) is the intellectual discipline sometimes called Strategic Management. I define it: the study of the fundamental determinants of potential business value.

The set of conditions needed for persistent differential returns. Power r

Non-exclusivity. Note that Branding is a non-exclusive type of Power. Indeed, a direct competitor might have an equally impactful brand that targets the same customers (e.g., Prada and Luis Vuitton and Hermès). All competitors with brand Power, however, still will earn returns superior to those of the competitor with no Branding.

Narrowness. To clear the high hurdle of Power, Branding in the context of Power Dynamics is a much more restricted concept than in marketing. For example, even if “brand recognition” is very high, there may not be Branding Power. In instances like this, it could actually be Scale Economies creating heightened brand awareness. For example, Coca Cola