Breakthrough Concepts in Competitive Strategy: Rethinking How Winners Compete

Chosen theme: Breakthrough Concepts in Competitive Strategy. Welcome to a bold exploration of ideas that upend the usual playbook, unlock fresh growth, and help you outmaneuver rivals. Read on, comment with your experiences, and subscribe for future breakthroughs.

From Red Oceans to Blue Possibilities

Instead of clawing market share from entrenched rivals, look to the vast frontier of noncustomers. Study their frustrations and inertia, then design elegant, lower-friction offerings. Share a moment when you converted a skeptic into a loyal advocate.

From Red Oceans to Blue Possibilities

Breakthrough competitive strategy blends differentiation and low cost by eliminating over-served features and amplifying what truly matters. Ask customers which trade-offs they hate most. Comment with features you cut that surprisingly increased adoption.

From Red Oceans to Blue Possibilities

A street coffee vendor stopped chasing premium beans and instead solved queuing pain with pre-order pickup spots. Sales soared as office workers valued time saved, not tasting notes. Would you pilot a similar shift this quarter?

Competing on Ecosystems, Not Products

Decide whether to orchestrate standards, data flows, and incentives, or specialize as a best-in-class participant. Orchestrators design rules that compound advantage. Tell us which role fits your strengths and why your customers will care.

Competing on Ecosystems, Not Products

Map the loop where more users attract more creators, which improves selection, which attracts even more users. Remove friction at every turn. Post your ecosystem flywheel sketch and we will feature insightful examples in upcoming editions.

Designing a Category, Not Entering One

Own the Problem Narrative

When you describe a costly, overlooked problem with clarity and evidence, buyers reframe priorities. Publish a crisp point-of-view document and anchor your roadmap to it. Drop a link to your draft for feedback from our community.

Earn Mindshare, Then Market Share

Teach the market what great looks like, with metrics customers can measure. Provide before and after stories, not just features. Subscribe for a checklist that helps translate narrative into predictable pipeline and defensible growth.

An Analyst’s Confusion, Then Conversion

A startup redefined onboarding as revenue activation, not setup, tracked time to first value, and published benchmarks. Skeptical analysts later adopted their metrics. Which unconventional metric could reposition your category conversation?

Jobs to Be Done: A Sharper Competitive Lens

Interview customers about last time they considered switching and why they did not. Surface anxieties, habits, and triggers. Share a surprising insight you discovered about the real job your product is quietly doing.

Jobs to Be Done: A Sharper Competitive Lens

Your rival might be spreadsheets, texting, or simply doing nothing. Map the full landscape of alternatives, including workarounds. Comment with a workaround your team underestimated and how you plan to address it deliberately.

Counter-Positioning and Strategic Judo

If your model undercuts their profit centers, imitation is self-destructive. Document the conflict clearly. Share an example where a competitor hesitated to copy you because it threatened their core economics or internal incentives.

Counter-Positioning and Strategic Judo

Promise something rivals find culturally impossible, like radical simplicity or transparent pricing, then operationalize it. Ask readers which commitment your team could make publicly to signal credible, durable differentiation.

Breakthrough Concepts in Competitive Strategy: Rethinking How Winners Compete

From Red Oceans to Blue Possibilities

From Red Oceans to Blue Possibilities

From Red Oceans to Blue Possibilities

Competing on Ecosystems, Not Products

Competing on Ecosystems, Not Products

Designing a Category, Not Entering One

Own the Problem Narrative

Earn Mindshare, Then Market Share

An Analyst’s Confusion, Then Conversion

Jobs to Be Done: A Sharper Competitive Lens

Jobs to Be Done: A Sharper Competitive Lens

Counter-Positioning and Strategic Judo

Counter-Positioning and Strategic Judo

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