Are you at risk of being trapped in an uncompetitive business? Chances are the strategies that worked well for you even a few years ago no longer deliver the results you need. Dramatic changes in business have unearthed a major gap between traditional approaches to strategy and the way the real world works now. In short, strategy is stuck. Most leaders are using frameworks that were designed for a different era of business and based on a single dominant idea--that the purpose of strategy is to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Once the premise on which all strategies were built, this idea is increasingly irrelevant. Now, Columbia Business School professor and globally recognized strategy expert Rita Gunther McGrath argues that it's time to go beyond the very concept of sustainable competitive advantage. Instead, organizations need to forge a new path to winning: capturing opportunities fast, exploiting them decisively, and moving on even before they are exhausted. She shows how to do this with a new set of practices based on the notion of transient competitive advantage. This book serves as a new playbook for strategy, one based on updated assumptions about how the world works, and shows how some of the world's most successful companies use this method to compete and win today. Filled with compelling examples from "growth outlier" firms such as Fujifilm, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Infosys, Yahoo! Japan, and Atmos Energy, The End of Competitive Advantage is your guide to renewed success and profitable growth in an economy increasingly defined by transient advantage.

You've been charged with growing your business. Incremental growth can no longer deliver the results you need. You need truly dynamic growth - and you need to achieve it without risking a hugely expensive gamble. How can you encourage innovative new ventures and pursue ambitious growth while minimizing risk?
In Discovery-Driven Growth, authors McGrath and MacMillan show how companies can plan and pursue an aggressive growth agenda with confidence. By carefully framing their strategic growth opportunities, testing each project assumption against a series of checkpoints, and creating a culture that acts on evidence and learning instead of blind stumbling, companies can better control their costs, minimize surprises, and know when to disengage from questionable projects--before it's too late.
Providing tools that will help you select and better assess the potential of any strategic venture, from new product lines to entirely new businesses, the authors outline a comprehensive process that lets you identify, manage, and leverage your company's full portfolio of opportunities. By reducing up-front costs and eliminating unnecessary risks, you'll be able to avoid missteps and explore more options to create the breakthrough growth that your business requires.

Become a digital-first organization&#8212and avoid disruption. If you read nothing else on the principles and practices that lead to successful digital transformation, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you reinvent your digital strategy, overcome barriers to change, and win in the continuously connected world. This book will inspire you to: Devise an industry-transforming business model Minimize risk using discovery-driven transformation Leverage torrents of data more strategically Prepare your employees for the future of work Prioritize the right initiatives Compete in the age of AI This collection of articles includes "Discovery-Driven Digital Transformation," by Rita McGrath and Ryan McManus; "The Transformative Business Model," by Stelios Kavadias, Kostas Ladas, and Christoph Loch; "Digital Doesn't Have to Be Disruptive," by Nathan Furr and Andrew Shipilov; "What's Your Data Strategy?," by Leandro DalleMule and Thomas H. Davenport; "Competing in the Age of AI," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "Building the AI-Powered Organization," by Tim Fountaine, Brian McCarthy, and Tamim Saleh; "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies," by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann; "The Age of Continuous Connection," by Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch; "The Problem with Legacy Ecosystems," by Maxwell Wessel, Aaron Levie, and Robert Siegel; "Your Workforce Is More Adaptable Than You Think," by Joseph B. Fuller, Judith K. Wallenstein, Manjari Raman, and Alice de Chalendar; "How Apple Is Organized for Innovation," by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen; and "Digital Transformation Comes Down to Talent in Four Key Areas," by Thomas H. Davenport and Thomas C. Redman. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever-changing business environment.

Become a digital-first organization&#8212and avoid disruption. If you read nothing else on the principles and practices that lead to successful digital transformation, read these 10 articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you reinvent your digital strategy, overcome barriers to change, and win in the continuously connected world. This book will inspire you to: Devise an industry-transforming business model Minimize risk using discovery-driven transformation Leverage torrents of data more strategically Prepare your employees for the future of work Prioritize the right initiatives Compete in the age of AI This collection of articles includes "Discovery-Driven Digital Transformation," by Rita McGrath and Ryan McManus; "The Transformative Business Model," by Stelios Kavadias, Kostas Ladas, and Christoph Loch; "Digital Doesn't Have to Be Disruptive," by Nathan Furr and Andrew Shipilov; "What's Your Data Strategy?," by Leandro DalleMule and Thomas H. Davenport; "Competing in the Age of AI," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "Building the AI-Powered Organization," by Tim Fountaine, Brian McCarthy, and Tamim Saleh; "How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Companies," by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann; "The Age of Continuous Connection," by Nicolaj Siggelkow and Christian Terwiesch; "The Problem with Legacy Ecosystems," by Maxwell Wessel, Aaron Levie, and Robert Siegel; "Your Workforce Is More Adaptable Than You Think," by Joseph B. Fuller, Judith K. Wallenstein, Manjari Raman, and Alice de Chalendar; "How Apple Is Organized for Innovation," by Joel M. Podolny and Morten T. Hansen; and "Digital Transformation Comes Down to Talent in Four Key Areas," by Thomas H. Davenport and Thomas C. Redman. HBR's 10 Must Reads paperback series is the definitive collection of books for new and experienced leaders alike. Leaders looking for the inspiration that big ideas provide, both to accelerate their own growth and that of their companies, should look no further. HBR's 10 Must Reads series focuses on the core topics that every ambitious manager needs to know: leadership, strategy, change, managing people, and managing yourself. Harvard Business Review has sorted through hundreds of articles and selected only the most essential reading on each topic. Each title includes timeless advice that will be relevant regardless of an ever‐changing business environment.

Do you have the right strategy to lead your company into the future? Get more of the management ideas you want, from the authors you trust, with HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (Vol. 2). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you combat new competitors and define the best strategy for your company. With insights from leading experts including Michael E. Porter, A.G. Lafley, and Clayton M. Christensen, this book will inspire you to: Choose a strategy that meets the demands of your competitive environment Identify the signals of disruption and take steps to avoid it Understand lean methodology and how it is changing business Transform your products and services into platforms Instill your strategy with creativity and purpose Generate value for your company, while also contributing to society This collection of articles includes "Your Strategy Needs a Strategy," by Martin Reeves, Claire Love, and Philipp Tillmanns; "Transient Advantage," by Rita Gunther McGrath; "Bringing Science to the Art of Strategy," by A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin, Jan W. Rivkin, and Nicolaj Siggelkow; "Managing Risks: A New Framework," by Robert S. Kaplan and Anette Mikes; "Surviving Disruption," by Maxwell Wessel and Clayton M. Christensen; "The Great Repeatable Business Model," by Chris Zook and James Allen; 'Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy," by Marshall W. Van Alstyne, Geoffrey G. Parker, and Sangeet Paul Choudary; "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything," by Steve Blank; "Strategy Needs Creativity," by Adam Brandenburger; "Put Purpose at the Core of Your Strategy," by Thomas W. Malnight, Ivy Buche, and Charles Dhanaraj; "Creating Shared Value," by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer.