Competition in the Digital Age
Over the last month, I outlined four broad entrepreneurial strategies that start-up ventures could choose between. The idea was that they had to focus on just one because (a) they had limited resources and (b) that the four choices were, in fact, substitutes. But Amazon has become a puzzle in this more recently and I …
Continue reading "The Two Amazons: The Disruptor and the Architect"
Today was Venture Day for the Next 36. This is a program that takes 36 of Canada’s finest undergraduate would-be entrepreneurs, puts them into teams, gives them starting capital and legal resources and teaches them business while they explore setting up their ventures. Today we got to take stock of where they had come …
Sometimes Shark Tank is good for a bit of entrepreneurial strategy. Here is a video of Scott Jordan of Scottevest. This is a company that has gone all in on the idea that people want pockets for their gadgets. I love this stuff and have their vest, jacket, pants etc. What was he doing on …
Last week I was at MIT and had my first experience of Clover Food Lab. No, it isn't some fancy new scientific research institute. Instead, it is a food truck. Except that I didn't visit a food truck but felt that I had. The Clover I visited was, in fact, a cafe/restaurant/I don't know what …
Continue reading "Annals of Coherent Entrepreneurial Strategy: Clover Food Lab"
It is now time to fill in the final box of our recent travel across the Entrepreneurial Strategy canvas. Recall that I argued that there were two key dimensions that could assist entrepreneurs in finding the right business model to match with their idea: (i) they could focus on execution or invest in control and …
Over the past two weeks, I have been outlining broad strategic options for entrepreneurs of which a disruption strategy is just one choice. The concept is that a given entrepreneurial idea can be commercialised in many different ways. The key to entrepreneurial strategy is to identify the feasible set of choices available to start-ups and …
Continue reading "Another choice: The Intellectual Property Strategy"
It is always interesting when two famous entrepreneurs disagree on something fundamental. In this case, it is Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. Here is Marc Andreessen's recent tweet. Something my friend & hero Peter Thiel and I vigorously disagree on: I *love* competition, I think it's invigorating/stimulating/productive. — Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) June 30, 2014 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsPut …
Continue reading "The Two Entrepreneurial Paths to Monopoly"
This post is a continuing part of an on-going series on entrepreneurial strategy. The previous posts in the series involved disruptive strategy and are here and here. Recall that the notion of entrepreneurial strategy is based on the foundation that once you have an idea the business model that is matched to commercialise that idea …
Continue reading "Choosing not to disrupt (Embedding in a value chain)"
Yesterday, I argued that start-ups have a choice as to what strategy or business model they select to pair with their idea. In so doing, I looked at their choice to pursue a disruptive strategy which I defined as (a) competing against established firms in the market (as oppose to cooperating or licensing to them) and (b) …
The recent debate over 'disruption theory' has focussed on the over-use of the word 'disruption' and also on whether it can be used to predict the fate of incumbents in various industries. Somewhat lost in that discussion is precisely what disruption means for start-ups. There has been a tendency to think that start-ups should have …
Digitopoly 