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7 POWERS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS STRATEGY BY HAMILTON HELMER

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7 POWERS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS STRATEGY BY HAMILTON HELMER


A SUMMARY AND REVIEW OF HAMILTON HELMER'S BOOK, 7 POWERS.

Abi Tyas Tunggal
Feb 20, 2021
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7 POWERS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS STRATEGY BY HAMILTON HELMER

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“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.” – Patrick Collison, CEO and Co-Founder of Stripe.

Execution is what helps us find product/market fit. To get there, we follow
Superhuman’s lead and listen to those who have come before to tell us when we’ve
arrived.

We echo John Doerr’s famed line: Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.

But what we often overlook is product/market fit is necessary, but not
sufficient, to build an enduringly valuable business. Operational excellence
alone does not ensure success.

So, what are the secrets to making a company enduringly valuable?

If we are to believe Hamilton Helmer, the answer is strategy and execution.
Every celebrated business is underpinned by decisive strategy choices and
operational excellence, in the midst of uncertainty, which leads to some form of
competitive advantage.

And what is strategy? To borrow from Nathan Baschez introducing Divinations:
Every strategy is really just a theory: “We bet if we do x, then y will
happen.” 

7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer provides real-world examples grounded in decades of
experience as a strategy advisor, active equity investor, and Stanford
University professor that help us build a set of mental models to think through
strategy.

The ideas in 7 Powers cannot, and were never intended to, replace operational
excellence. But rather to create a prepared mind that can point toward enduring
value.

Strategy as an idea may be easy. But we should never confuse simple with
simplistic.

Reed Hastings, CEO and Co-founder of Netflix, echoes the importance of strategy
in his foreword to 7 Powers:

Most of my time and that of everyone else at Netflix must be spent achieving
superb execution. Fail at this, and you will surely stumble. Sadly, though, such
execution alone will not ensure success. If you don’t get your strategy right,
you are at risk.

Beyond Reed and Patrick, other fans of 7 Powers include:

 * Spotify CEO and Co-Founder - Daniel Ek;

 * Entrepreneur and investor - Peter Thiel;

 * Former CEO of Adobe - Bruce Chizen; and

 * Chairman of Sequoia Capital - Mike Moritz.

The crux of 7 Powers is a business can try to improve its strengths, mitigate
its weaknesses, eliminate competitor risk, better serve its customers, maximize
shareholder value, or take advantage of its pricing power.

But there are very few times when a business can do all at once.

7 Powers provides a comprehensive strategic framework that can help every
business choose what to focus on next.


STRATEGY STATICS: DEFINING THE 7 POWERS


We begin with our central concept, the seven Powers. Each Power provides a
benefit to its owner and a barrier to competitors.

Power 1: Scale Economies

 * Definition: A business where per unit costs decline as volume increases

 * Benefit: Reduced costs

 * Barrier: Prohibitive costs of share gains

Power 2: Network Economies

 * Definition: A business where the value realized by a customer increases as
   the userbase increases

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices or monetize more due to additional
   value created

 * Barrier: Hard to gain market share as users don’t want to switch due to the
   lower value provided

Power 3: Counter Positioning

 * Definition: A business adopts a new, superior business model that incumbents
   cannot mimic due to the anticipated cannibalization of their existing
   business

 * Benefit: Lower costs and/or higher prices due to more valuable product

 * Barrier: Cannibalization of existing business

Power 4: Switching Costs

 * A business where customers expect a greater loss than the value they gain
   from switching to an alternate

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices for the same product

 * Barrier: Competitor has to compensate the customer to switch

Power 5: Branding

 * Definition: A business that enjoys a higher perceived value to an objectively
   identical offering due to historical information about them

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices due to perceived higher quality or
   reduced uncertainty

 * Barrier: The significant time and uncertainty needed to build a brand

Power 6: Cornered Resource

 * Definition: A business that has preferential access to a coveted resource
   that independently enhances value

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices, reduce costs, or create better
   products due to access to a cornered resource

 * Barrier: Ranges from property and patent law to personal preference, e.g.
   retention of key talent

Power 7: Process Power

 * Definition: A business whose organization and activity set enables lower
   costs and/or superior products that can only be matched by an extended
   commitment

 * Benefit: Improved product and/or lower costs due to superior process

 * Barrier: The significant time and/or investment needed to create the process


POWER 1: SCALE ECONOMIES



Scale Economies

 * Scale Economies: A business where per unit costs decline as volume increases

 * Benefit: Reduced costs

 * Barrier: Prohibitive costs of share gains

Scale economies are straightforward, well-known, and often overlooked.

If your business has a low fixed cost base, it can benefit enormously from
scale. This is why many technology companies try to get big fast. Not for scale
itself but because being big is one of the best ways to protect their profits.

Hamilton uses Netflix and their move toward original content as his example of a
scale economy.

Prior to creating their own content, Netflix had to negotiate the rights to each
TV show or film on a case-by-case basis, often multiple times across
geographies, each with changing terms. This is part of the reason why the US
Netflix and the Australian Netflix have different content.

Netflix was at the mercy of its suppliers who could, and would, charge more
based on the increasing number of subscribers Netflix had. In short, Netflix’s
cost base wasn’t fixed.

Contrast this with Netflix Originals. With Originals, Netflix pays a flat fee
that can be divided across its global subscriber base who will all get access to
the same content, on the same day, regardless of geography.

And Netflix never has to pay another cent once the content is made.

> The more subscribers the company amasses and the higher it can push its
> pricing, the more content it can produce – which in turn drives more
> subscribers, more engagement and more pricing power.
> 
> This flywheel is endemic to SVOD, but unique in the history of television.
> Linear television networks have always been bound by a finite number of
> primetime slots and the size of the total primetime audience.
> 
> Accordingly, a network with 15 viable slots would only add a new show (say #16
> or #22) if it replaced one of its existing 15; the only thing that matters is
> relative outperformance.
> 
> Netflix faces none of linear’s limitations – any series that can meet the
> company’s target cost per hour watched contributes to its penetration and
> engagement (as do those that don’t, albeit less efficiently).

Source: Netflix Isn't Being Reckless

So that’s our Benefit, but what’s our Barrier? Scale is a chicken and egg
problem. Netflix had to get big enough that it made sense to create its own
content rather than leasing it from others, but in order to get big, it needed
content from other providers.

Contrast Netflix, which has ~207 million subscribers, to Stan who has 2.3
million.

If both companies were to produce an original with a budget of $100 million,
Netflix pays ~48 cents per subscriber while Stan pays $43.47 per subscriber.

If Stan wants to compete with Netflix’s original content, they not only have to
make the large initial outlay to produce the content, but they also have a far
smaller base of users to spread the cost across.

Even if they were willing to do that, Netflix’s superior cost advantage allows
them to spend more on marketing, improving their user experience, hiring more
people, or just undercutting the competition.

As you can see, Netflix’s move toward original content significantly improves
its margins and creates a compelling moat that is not easily emulated.

If you want to dive deeper into why Originals are an important strategic
decision for Netflix, I highly recommend Matthew Ball’s posts:

 * Part 1 explains that Netflix spends far more on content than is typically
   reported.

 * Part 2 explains how (and why) Netflix uses product and technology to
   economically outspend its competitors. 

 * Part 3 explains why Netflix risks so much. 

 * Part 4 explains why the term ‘Original Series’ is often a lie – and how
   Netflix uses this fact to beat its competitors. 

 * Part 5 explains why 2019 and 2020 don’t represent significant threats to
   Netflix despite the volume of new entrants and their impact on Netflix’s
   library.

 * Part 6 explains that quality in SVOD is a distraction, if the concept is even
   real.

 * Part 7 explains why Netflix has been so resilient over the past decade – and
   why this is likely to continue even as competition intensifies.

 * Part 8 explains why Netflix won't be stopped by recession, bond markets,
   debt, or cash losses

Not to mention…


Hidden Moats in Consumer Subscription

Source: Screenshot Essays


POWER 2: NETWORK ECONOMIES



Network Economies

 * Network Economies: A business where the value realized by a customer
   increases as the userbase increases

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices or monetize more due to additional
   value created

 * Barrier: Hard to gain market share as users don’t want to switch due to the
   lower value provided

If you work in technology, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with
network economies. They’re behind many of the most successful technology
businesses including PayPal, Facebook, and Twitter.

That said, many people continue to confuse virality with network economies. This
is because they’re often seen together, but don’t necessarily have to be. You
can go viral without having a network effect and vice versa.

A network economy is a business where the value realized by a customer increases
as the userbase increases.

Facebook is a canonical example of a service that benefits from network
economies.

As the user base grows, you’re able to connect with more of your friends.

We all use Facebook because we all use Facebook. This is why Facebook’s major
focus, in the beginning, was retention. It’s why they rolled out school by
school, and why the entire Facebook product experience focused on getting users
to seven friends in ten days.



Once a user had seven friends, they were much less likely to churn and thus
added value to Facebook’s network.

More importantly, these strong network effects have made it near impossible for
anyone to compete with a generalized social network.

The idea of leaving Facebook to join an alternative network that most of your
friends aren’t using reduces the potential value of the alternative, even if
it’s a better experience.

This is why network economies often lead to winner-take-all dynamics.

Compare this to virality, virality means each user that signups up invites more
users. There are many examples of viral games on the Facebook platform that
quickly declined in popularity because the additional users provided no
additional value and the existing users churned.

The most important thing to understand is businesses can be viral and not have a
network effect. Virality can disappear and churn can eat away at the user base.

I highly recommend diving deep into network effects by reading this a16z deck
and listening to Anu Hariharan from Y Combinator (who wrote the a16z deck prior
to moving to Y Combinator).




POWER 3: COUNTER POSITIONING


 * Counter Positioning: A business adopts a new, superior business model that
   incumbents cannot mimic due to the anticipated cannibalization of their
   existing business

 * Benefit: Lower costs and/or higher prices due to more valuable product

 * Barrier: Cannibalization of existing business

Counter positioning is when a new business adopts a new, superior business model
that incumbents can't mimic due to anticipated damage to their existing
business. It’s similar to Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory but lacks the
emphasis on moving from the low to the high end of the market.

Counter positioning tends to come from outsiders and startups rather than
existing market leaders. This is because the business environment does not allow
market leaders to pursue disruptive innovations when they arise for one of the
following reasons:

 * The total addressable market looks small;

 * It's difficult to see if the total addressable market will grow (and by how
   much); or

 * Their current cost structures are based on serving their existing market and
   not what is required to sell the disruptive technology, which may have lower
   margins.

When I first read about counter positioning, the first story I thought of was
Kodak and the invention of the digital camera in 1975. I was wrong, digital
cameras were disruptive technology to film, but they aren’t an example of
failure to adopt counter positioning. Let’s dig into why.

Kodak of all places was best positioned to be the leader in digital cameras,
after all, they were the leader in film. But what Hamilton (and Clayton) offer
us is an opposing explanation. The reason Kodak wasn’t able to react was
precisely because of its expertise and existing value chain.

Kodak as a business was designed to profit from selling film cameras that needed
an endless supply of film and services like film development. Adopting digital
would have done collateral damage to Kodak’s business, but would not offer lower
costs and/or higher prices due to the reduced costs for consumers and if Kodak
could adopt it so could its competitors.

As Hamilton told me over email:

> for film there was no attractive business model (for media) in digital – so it
> goes down the first left branch in the decision tree: Stand-Alone Attractive -
> No. This is another example as well as to why there is many-to-many mapping of
> CP to Christensen’s disruptive technologies (that is to say they mean entirely
> different things). Digital photography was disruptive but not CP.

Pair this with the fact that film cameras were used by professionals while
digital cameras were seen as toys.

But we shouldn’t forget what Aaron Harris wrote in Toy Markets:

> Investors should know how important it is to bet on toy markets. They’re the
> ones who have learned, again and again, that the biggest companies start out
> looking like toys. Amazon was for selling books online when relatively few
> people used the internet. Google was a search engine in a landscape crowded
> with search engines that weren’t themselves gigantic businesses. eBay was for
> selling beanie babies.

Either way, digital cameras didn’t need film and photos didn’t necessarily need
to be developed, at least not in the way that Kodak was used to. This meant that
if Kodak were to develop a better digital camera, they would cannibalize their
existing profits while offering a less profitable business in the future.

Things that look like toys improve and often become good enough for professional
users. But Kodak’s management probably knew this.

Do you take the money and your best people away from what makes you money (film)
to work on something that will likely make you far less in the future (digital)
when your customers aren't currently using it?

Or do you keep profiting from what you've got until it's gone?

It’s a difficult decision to make even for the best executive.

Now let’s contrast Kodak to Vanguard, a real example of counter positioning.

Vanguard took on the world of active investing with its low-cost passive index
funds. While it’s easy to spout the benefits of low-cost passive investing
today, it was a highly contrarian approach.

Why would anyone accept the average returns of the market instead of choosing an
active equity investor who wanted to beat the market?

Well, it turns out, it is exceptionally rare for an active fund to beat the
market over the long-term. As this became apparent, Vanguard saw its assets
under management balloon.

And while competitors could have easily introduced their own low-cost passive
index funds, they were extremely slow to do so, for the exact same reasons that
Kodak had for not adopting the digital camera. It made them less money and their
cost base wasn’t set up to support it.


POWER 4: SWITCHING COSTS



Switching Costs

 * Switching Costs: A business where customers expect a greater loss than the
   gain from switching to an alternate

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices for the same product

 * Barrier: Competitor has to compensate the customer to switch

Switching costs occur when it’s easier to stay with a product or service than it
is to switch (even if the alternative is objectively better). Additional
products, features, integrations, consulting, and training can make it even
harder to switch.

This is part of the reason why many companies provide universities with free
access to their software to teach students. It means when they get to the
workforce they’ve already learned the software and would incur switching costs
when they have to learn an alternative. Examples of this include Adobe, Matlab,
Mathematica, and Atlassian products at Australian universities.

In 7 Powers, Hamilton uses the example of SAP which over time becomes the
backbone of organizations. I personally think Salesforce is a more interesting
example.

Once you rely on Salesforce’s CRM, it’s often not worth switching platforms. It
can take months to retain your workforce and costs hundreds of thousands or even
tens of millions of dollars to recreate business logic on the new platform.

Beyond CRM, Salesforce now has fourteen other products that when used, make it
even harder to switch.


Salesforce Product Suite

A key thing to consider is that switching costs often increase with the number
of people who rely on it. They’re never that large for a single person but when
an organization has hundreds or thousands of users on a certain platform, it can
mean thousands of hours of productivity lost.

Even if a new solution is 10% better, it may not make sense to switch.

This is a big reason for vendor lock-in and why enterprise software can be
terrible, overpriced, and have outdated UX - but still succeed.

Other reasons include:

 * The person who uses the software is not the person buying the software.
   Managers prefer to go with the tried and tested rather than something new
   that may be better – they don't want to risk their reputation on a new shiny
   solution. Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.

 * The software is optimized for compliance, complicated workflows, permission
   management, etc and the user experience takes a back seat.

 * No one is in charge of re-evaluating the old software solutions, so companies
   just keep paying for what they have.


POWER 5: BRANDING



Branding

 * Branding: A business that enjoys a higher perceived value to an objectively
   identical offering due to historical information about them

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices due to perceived higher quality or
   reduced uncertainty

 * Barrier: The significant time and uncertainty needed to build a brand

Brand is arguably the most powerful and least understood of the 7 Powers. It’s
so durable because of how complicated, time-intensive, and lucky you have to
build a brand.

If you look at Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway portfolio you see a lot of
powerful brands: American Express, Wells Fargo, Apple, Heinz, Coca Cola, Bank of
America, Goldman Sachs, IBM, and John & Johnson.

The key thing to understand is many of these brands sell commoditized goods.
There is nothing different between them and their competitors beyond the company
or product name.

With brands, customers are paying for consistent experience and years (even
decades) of consistent messaging.

Tiffany & Co, the American luxury jewelry retailer, is a classic example of
brand. The brand is so strong people want to buy used Tiffany's boxes on eBay.

When Tiffany’s introduced the diamond engagement ring in 1886, the Tiffany Blue
Box became as desired as what was inside.

When you buy Tiffany’s, you’re not just buying jewelry, you’re buying over 100
years of consistent advertising that says when your partner buys you Tiffany’s
they love you.

It’s an incredibly powerful growth loop, the more people who know the brand, the
more they expect to see it, and the more people want it.

In the past, the Tiffany Blue Box meant better placements in malls and the store
itself acted as a channel for new people to discover Tiffany’s.

One caveat to this is that the Internet may be changing how brands are developed
and how powerful brand is as a Power. Just look at how quickly Airbnb was able
to build a brand that often surpasses the likes of Hilton and other famous hotel
brands.

Placement and brand may not be as important in the Internet’s infinite mall with
unlimited shelf space. Near zero cost of distribution means new ways to build
brands that can be much faster than traditional methods, see Email Addresses and
Razor Blades from Stratechery for more on this topic.


POWER 6: CORNERED RESOURCE


 * Cornered Resource: A business that has preferential access to a coveted
   resource that independently enhances value

 * Benefit: Ability to charge higher prices, reduce costs, or create better
   products due to access to a cornered resource

 * Barrier: Ranges from property and patent law to personal preference, e.g.
   retention of key talent

A company has a cornered resource when it has preferential access to limited
resources or talent.

A good example for talent is Amazon, who according to The Information, has a
17-person senior leadership team, called the S-team, who have an average tenure
of 15 years – the majority of the company's 23-year lifespan.

The S-Team has a deeper understanding of what it takes to scale a business like
Amazon’s than anyone else in the world and have shared almost two decades of
experience.

Other famous examples:

 * Apple's design team led by Jony Ive;

 * The PayPal Mafia; and

 * Pixar's Braintrust (this cornered resource is exactly why Disney bought
   Pixar!).


POWER 7: PROCESS POWER



Process Power

 * Process Power: A business whose organization and activity set enables lower
   costs and/or superior products that can only be matched by an extended
   commitment

 * Benefit: Improved product and/or lower costs due to superior process

 * Barrier: The significant time and/or investment needed to create the process

Process Power is one of the hardest powers to copy, Toyota is famously
transparent about the Toyota Production System (TPS) processes but other
companies haven’t been able to replicate it.

The key difference between Process Power and operational excellent is
hysteresis, even if you know what to do it takes significant time and effort to
replicate.

Toyota’s Kanban just-in-time manufacturing system allows any worker from Janitor
to CEO to stop the production line if they see something dangerous or something
that could be improved.

Despite Toyota providing tours and creating a joint venture with GM, they still
couldn’t replicate the Process Power of Toyota’s Japanese factories.

While checklists are great, see The Checklist Manifesto, Process Power is
embedded in the organization’s culture. It’s learned by osmosis and feels
natural to employees.

To outsiders, it looks like magic – and it sort of is.

Other good examples of Process Power are Instagram and WhatsApp, both were worth
billions of dollars with less than 60 full-time employees, 13 employees for
Instagram, and 55 employees for WhatsApp.


DYNAMICS: GETTING TO POWER


“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.”
– Peter Thiel, entrepreneur and investor

The path to Power begins with invention. To understand why we return to Netflix.

When Netflix decided to take on streaming, they had Powers in their DVD-rental
business (counter positioning and process power) that wouldn’t transfer over to
streaming.

And to develop the streaming offering they had to license content which
increased in cost as subscribers increased. There was no path to creating
something that would produce persistent differential returns.

But thanks to invention, the streaming service we know today, Netflix created
compelling value and had one Power (counter positioning) that allowed them to
get to scale. Scale then allowed them to shift their attention to developing
original content that was exclusive and produced at a fixed cost leading to a
second power, a scale economy.

Over time, we may see Netflix develop a powerful brand and process power around
their original programming too.

In general:

 * Change creates new threats and opportunities;

 * The company invents a new product or service; and

 * Once the new product creates compelling value for customers, the company can
   develop a strategy (a route to Power).

What I take from 7 Powers is it's as important to decide what to work on as it
is to work hard. Netflix would never have become Netflix without its counter
positioning and scale economy.


POWER PROGRESSION: WHEN CAN YOU ESTABLISH A POWER?


There are three distinct phases when a company can craft a strategy to create
Power:

 * Origination: Before creating compelling value counter positioning and
   cornered resource can be created.

 * Takeoff: The rapid growth phase that takes place when compelling value is
   attained is when scale economies, network economies, and switching costs can
   be attained.

 * Stability: After growth slows brand and process power become the name of the
   game.


SUMMARY



7 Powers Summary

Hamilton develops strategy from first principles and uses specific nomenclature
throughout 7 Powers that is useful to walk away with:

 * Power: the central concept of the book, is the set of conditions creating the
   potential for persistent differential returns. Power is what makes a business
   durably valuable and is created if a business line is simultaneously superior
   (improves free cash flow), significant (the cash flow improvement is
   material), and sustainable (the improvement is largely immune to competitive
   arbitrage).

 * Strategy (with a capital S): The intellectual discipline, is the study of
   what conditions create the potential business value.

 * strategy (with a lowercase s) or The Mantra: The specific approach of a
   single business, is a route to continuing Power in significant markets.

The notion of Power (and the impact of its lacking) is what underlies Warren
Buffett’s famed line: When a manager with a reputation for brilliance tackles a
business with a reputation for bad economics, the reputation of the business
remains intact.

Like John Doerr, Warren is correct for his stage of investing. A lack of Power
in public companies is rarely fixed by brilliant management.

At the same time, brilliant management is often required to create Power in the
first place.

This is why Strategy as an intellectual discipline must be further broken down
into two underlying topics:

 1. Statics–i.e. “Being There”: Statics are what makes a business durably
    valuable, the specific conditions that result in materially improved cash
    flow, while simultaneously inhibiting competitive arbitrage.

 2. Dynamics–i.e. “Getting There”: Dynamics are the decisions that result in the
    creation or attainment of Power.

This is a good place to flag that Hamilton’s definition of strategy, the
specific approach to a single business, is considerably narrower than the
traditional definition of strategy. It is solely focused on creating a
persistent Power, Power that leads to persistent differential returns.

It’s important to understand that the fundamental assumption behind good
strategy is unchanging, differential margins. This is because the bulk of a
business’ value comes in the future. For high-growth companies, this reality is
accentuated. Remember, Power is reserved for conditions that create durable
differential returns.

Each Power is associated with a magnitude and duration:

 * Benefit: The conditions created by Power must materially augment cash flow.
   It can manifest as any combination of increased prices, reduced costs, and/or
   lessened investment needs. This is the magnitude aspect of Power.

 * Barrier: The Benefit must not only augment cash flow, it must also persist.
   There must be some aspect that prevents existing and potential competitors
   from engaging in value-destroying arbitrage. This is the duration aspect of
   Power.

Benefits are common, but alone bear little positive impact on company value as
they are generally subject to arbitrage. This is why Power must have a Barrier
to prevent such arbitrage.

Power is a relative concept. It’s about your advantages relative to specific
competitors. Good strategy involves assessing Power with respect to each
competitor, including potential, direct, and functional equivalents.

Remember, Power is not a panacea. All the Power in the world won’t save you from
an industry that is rapidly contracting.


ADDITIONAL RESOURCES


If you found this post interesting, I recommend reading 7 Powers in its
entirety. Below are some additional resources you may find interesting. 


BOOKS


 * High Output Management, by Andy Grove (summary and review)

 * High Growth Handbook, by Elad Gil

 * The Score Takes Care of Itself, by Bill Walsh

 * Essentialism, by Greg McKeown

 * Deep Work, by Cal Newport

 * Scale, by Geoffrey West

 * Creative Selection, by Ken Kocienda

 * The Innovator's Dilemma, by Clayton M. Christensen

 * The Innovator's Solution, by Clayton M. Christensen

 * Andrew Carnegie, by David Nasaw

 * The Innovators, by Walter Isaacson

 * American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

 * Titan, by Ron Chernow

 * The Outsiders, by William N. Thorndike

 * Creativity Inc., by Ed Catmull

 * Valley of Genius, by Adam Fisher

 * Dealers of Lightning, by Michael Hilztik

 * The Facebook Effect, by David Kirkpatrick

 * In the Plex, by Steven Levy

 * Behind the Cloud, by Marc Benioff

 * The Dream Machine, by M. Mitchell Waldrop

 * The House of Morgan, by Ron Chernow

 * Loonshots, by Safi Bahcall

 * The Everything Store, by Brad Stone

 * Superforecasting, by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner

 * Expert Political Judgement, by Philip E. Tetlock

 * Thinking in Bets, by Annie Duke

 * The Book of Why, by Judea Pearl and Dana Mackenzie

 * The Elephant in the Brain, by Robin Hanson and Kevin Simler

 * Competitive Strategy, by Michael Porter


PODCASTS



VIDEOS







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Jordan Hughes for creating the images you see in this post, check out
his projects Good Books and Untitled UI. And thanks to Anna Cheng, Guy Proops,
and Jack Walsh who reviewed drafts and provided feedback that made this post
much easier to read.




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7 POWERS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS STRATEGY BY HAMILTON HELMER

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7 POWERS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS STRATEGY BY HAMILTON HELMER

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Mick Liubinskas
Mick Liubinskas
Jul 21, 2020Liked by Abi Tyas Tunggal

Great post, thanks for sharing. Minor typo with 'Statics'

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High Output Management by Andy Grove
A summary and review of Andy Grove's book, High Output Management.
Aug 22, 2021 • 
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HIGH OUTPUT MANAGEMENT BY ANDY GROVE

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How to Operate with Keith Rabois
What should a CEO be doing on a day to day basis? How do you make sure the
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HOW TO OPERATE WITH KEITH RABOIS

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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins
A summary and review of Jim Collin's book, Good to Great.
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GOOD TO GREAT: WHY SOME COMPANIES MAKE THE LEAP AND OTHERS DON'T BY JIM COLLINS

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