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Strategy in a World of Constant Change

Harvard Business Review

The moment I loved most was during the Q&A when an older gentleman asked Jobs a challenging question about the mouse as user interface technology: did it really compare favorably to the traditional keystroke approach? In it, he talked about the competitive advantage of Southwest Airlines, Vanguard Group and Progressive Insurance.

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What Groupon and LivingSocial Cannot Offer

Harvard Business Review

But a new study shows that no amount of buzz, excitement or first mover's advantage will lead a product to sustained growth. In business, we too often forget that what we are selling is value: we instead try to sell technology, or packaging, or just plain vaporware. At least that is the conventional wisdom.

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A Survey of 3,000 Executives Reveals How Businesses Succeed with AI

Harvard Business Review

While it’s clear that CEOs need to consider AI’s business implications, the technology’s nascence in business settings makes it less clear how to profitably employ it. While investment in AI is heating up, corporate adoption of AI technologies is still lagging.

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Best Practices for Leading via Innovation

Harvard Business Review

In an era of intense globalization, rapid demographic change and accelerating technological progress, the best companies for leadership recognize the value of innovation, putting it at the heart of their corporate culture and using this targeted, focused innovation to drive shareholder value and improve efficiency.

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Strategy and The Uncertainty Excuse

Harvard Business Review

This is an argument I hear particularly often in high-technology sectors. They may be strategizing their way to first mover advantages and positions that leave few if any attractive options in the market. There isn't enough certainty, they argue, to be able to do strategy effectively.

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Why We Shouldn’t Worry About the Declining Number of Public Companies

Harvard Business Review

In sum, digital strategies and rapid technological obsolescence increases the mortality rates among existing public firms, but does not correspondingly increase the demand for IPOs. Such acquisitions become more lucrative with rising first-mover advantages, pace of technological development, and network externality.

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Business Model Innovation is the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Harvard Business Review

Before long, despite all the first mover advantages of Viagra, the competitors reduced Viagra's market share from over 90% to around 50%. First, the innovation is often in the firm's processes that may not even be directly visible to competitors. Within 5 years, it had two mighty competitors — Cialis and Levitra.