7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

Great read, and a quick read as well, finished in a week on my way commuting to work:)

This book isn't particularly polished compared to most hardcover business books. It looks like the author basically took the lecture notes from his course and published them as a book. And what a book it is! The content is pure gold. Unlike the "fad of the month" or "if it worked for me it'll work for you" or just plain "gee whiz" of many books on business strategy, the concepts and method set out in this book are highly skeptical and therefore thoroughly rigorous. The ideas feel like they've been tested in the most challenging competitive environments (the author refers to his work at the most senior levels of Netflix). The book is not always easy to absorb, and tying everything back to an equation of economic value may be more interesting in theory than in practice (the author assigns great value to this Theory of Everything integration), but the book is worth a dozen of the books churned out by business strategy consultants. If you're interested in or must understand business strategy, this lesser-known book is a must-read. It has earned a place in my permanent collection, next to Sun Tzu.

It took me a while to get into the book as some of the definitions are either fuzzy or provided much later (for example hysteresis). The main issue I have is exemplified by the Intel example. I worked at Intel in the 80s and 90s and I believe that the book missed the central role that Intel culture played in the company’s ability to execute and outperform AMD and Motorola. Otherwise great book and 20 years later still relevant

Great book to learn from and it’s easy to understand. It’s got a basic premise that you should always follow.

“Any strategy framework, to be broadly useful to a businessperson, must address all the key strategy issues facing an organization. Hamilton has long been been aware of the deficiencies in existing frameworks. His solution? To forge ahead with entirely novel conceptual advances, and then to bind these together into a united whole.” This is what Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, writes in the book introduction! The book is an absolute must read if you are a founder building a business or a long-term investor and betting on the durable long-term competitive strengths of the business. Hamilton Helmer, the author, defines the meaning of strategy and power: Strategy: The study of the fundamental determinants of potential business value Power: The set of conditions creating the potential for persistent differential returns and then goes to show that a business derives its Potential Value = [Market Scale] * [Power]. Hamilton lays out the seven sources of Powers for a business, all from first principles, and illustrates these with very good examples from the real world. The seven powers: Scale economics, Network economics, counter-positioning, switching costs, branding, cornered resource, process power. My favorite power is the one called “Counter-Positioning”. I have read all the popular strategy books and I don’t think I have come across this concept as clearly articulated in any other book. He defines Counter-Positioning as follows: “A newcomer adopts a new, superior business model which the incumbent does not mimic due to anticipated damage to their existing business.” Here is what Reed Hastings says about Counter-Positioning in the book’s introduction. “Throughout my career I have often observed power incumbents, once lauded for their business acumen, failing to adjust to a new competitive reality. The result is always a stunning fall from grace. A superficial thinker might pin this on lack of vision and leadership. Not Hamilton. By inventing the concept of Counter-Positioning, he was able to peel back the layers into the deeper reality of these situations. Rather than lacking vision, Hamilton established, these incumbents are in fact acting in an entirely predictable and economically rational way. Our earlier battle with Blockbuster bore out this notion” Hamilton is not only an author and an academic. He was also an early investor in Netflix and had tremendous impact on the strategy at Netflix and many other organizations. This book is a must read. I strongly recommend it!

The book contains valuable information about several strategic advantages for businesses along with examples of how they work. However, it's an unpleasant read. It would have been just as valuable if written in a much more readable manner by avoiding big words and unnecessary math.

While at times arcane and pedantic, this book provides a master class in strategic analysis. It impressively ties together so many threads of historical insights as to provides a new template for all business assessment.

Unless you took advanced math, don't bother reading the sections with formulas, there is not much of an attempt to meet the reader where they are. That said, there are strong insights here. Overall, glad to have read it, not however the thing that I will use every day.

The book explores the true value drivers that enable any company to differentiate and return real value in a clear way with well known examples from leading companies.

Entrega a tiempo del libro a pesar de ser envió internacional. El libro es muy interesante para poder planear a futuro en una empresa.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. The 7 powers is a well thought out and intuitive framework / strategy that is an excellent toolkit for investors trying to identity moats, and for business owners trying to create them

So many insights, great frameworks to assess a business through.

This book is short. It makes a promise to deliver a simple and powerful strategy compass for business owners and investors, and it delivers on that promise beautifully and succinctly. There’s a lot of value packed here. It’ll be one of rare business books to reread front to back every few years.