How to use the white heat of technology to forge greater success

For decades firms have framed their competitive strategy around three important anchors: products, value chains, and industry structures. Products drive revenues, value chains position products to compete in the marketplace, and industry structures amplify the value of products. For example, products generate more value in industry structures with fewer competitors and stronger entry barriers. Rooted on these anchors, competitive strategy is about making key choices: such as what products to offer, how to organize value chains to position products profitably, and how to influence industry structure (for example, by making investments that raise barriers to entry). Firms making and executing the right choices forge a competitive advantage. Over the years, this thinking has served a vast number of legacy firms well. Some of them, such as Boeing, Exxon-Mobil, and General Motors, became the most valuable companies in the world. Today, however, digital titans such as…