7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

by Hamilton Helmer

Overview

What are the secrets to making a company enduringly valuable?

7 Powers breaks fresh ground by constructing a comprehensive strategy toolset that is easy for you to learn, communicate and quickly apply.

Drawing on his decades of experience as a business strategy advisor, active equity investor and Stanford University teacher, Hamilton Helmer develops from first principles a practical theory of Strategy rooted in the notion of Power, those conditions which create the potential for persistent differential returns.

Using rich real-world examples, Helmer rigorously characterizes exactly what your business must achieve to create Power. And create Power it must, for without it your business is at risk. He explains why invention always comes first and then develops the Power Progression to enable you to target when your Power must be established: in the Origination, Take-Off or Stability phases of your business.

Every business faces a do-or-die strategy moment: a crux directional choice made amidst swirling uncertainty. To get this right you need at your fingertips a real-time strategy compass to discern your true north. 7 Powers is that compass.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780998116310
Publisher:	Deep Strategy
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	210
Sales rank:	286,987
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.48(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by Reed Hastings

Introduction
Part I - Strategy Statics
Chapter 1: Scale Economies
Chapter 2: Network Economies
Chapter 3: Counter-Positioning
Chapter 4: Switching Costs
Chapter 5: Branding
Chapter 6: Cornered Resources
Chapter 7: Process Power

Part II - Strategy Dynamics
Chapter 8: The Path to Power
Chapter 9: The Power Progression

Acknowledgements

Editorial Reviews

Daniel Ek, CEO and Co-Founder of Spotify Hamilton Helmer is the best kind of big thinker - he offers great insights that you can turn into real world action. At Spotify the 7 Powers are widely used as we discuss new initiatives. His distillation of the key types of strategic power, how to find them, how to leverage them, and how to maintain them is a fantastic toolset for companies at every stage Reed Hastings, CEO and Co-Founder of Netflix The forces of competition are just incredibly strong. Everyone is trying to eat your lunch, and if you don't read 7 Powers you're going to die a lot sooner. Jonathan Levin, Philip H Knight Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business 7 Powers lays out a clear, compelling and insightful framework for thinking about the persistent sources of competitive advantage. Helmer draws on three decades of experience to break down how companies establish power and shape their industries, illustrating at every turn with entertaining and illuminating examples. Peter Thiel, entrepreneur and investor Hamilton Helmer understands that strategy starts with invention. He can't tell you what to invent, but he can and does show what it takes for a new invention to become a valuable business. Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe 7 Powers provides vital guidance for any business person developing strategy. I have known Hamilton for over a decade since his time as a strategy advisor to Adobe, and I am delighted that he is now sharing his original and compelling business insights. Pete Docter, Pixar director and two-time Academy Award winner for Up and Inside Out Hamilton is a deep thinker who makes a compelling connection between passion and good business. His ideas are well thought out, wise, and often challenging. I always look forward to what he has to say. Mike Moritz, Chairman of Sequoia Capital Making a small number of decisions wisely is far more important than making a lot of decisions correctly. Hamilton Helmer explains exactly how the leaders of the world's most successful businesses get that small number just right. Patrick Collison, CEO and Co-Founder of Stripe Silicon Valley correctly places enormous value on execution and on culture. However, I think this sometimes leads to insufficient importance being placed on strategy. Hamilton Helmer's deeply incisive work will hopefully help correct that. Blake Grossman, former CEO of Barclays Global Investors 7 Powers is a highly innovative approach to understanding some of the key underlying drivers of company value and capturing ideas that certainly are not very well understood in the markets. And the result has been one of the most exceptional and sustained alpha records I've ever seen. Daphne Koller, President and Co-Founder of Coursera This book is a must-read for anyone starting or growing a business. It lays out an elegant and insightful framework that really helped inspire my thinking about building and maintaining strategic advantage in a competitive landscape. Mark Baumgartner, Chief Investment Officer, Institute for Advanced Study A master in the discipline of strategy, Hamilton has condensed 40 years of thought and practice into a single readable book. Read it and to your benefit you will see the 7 Powers everywhere you look. Greg Hinckley, President, Mentor Graphics Corporation Mentor has benefited from a continuing consulting relationship with Hamilton for the better part of 20 years and has incorporated many of his ideas and principles into the core of our strategy. 7 Powers consolidates those ideas and principles into a powerful framework and vocabulary to describe and permit analysis of where a company stands in its competitive space. It's a powerful work.

From the Publisher