How Industries Evolve: Principles for Achieving and Sustaining Superior Performance

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant analysis of change
Review: The one thing that is constant is change, yet change is something to which we tend to react, and not to react well. Companies start, most fail, some have that essence of an idea that makes them become a giant in the field. Sometimes they become the instrument of change itself, as when department stores began to replace the mom and pop stores. Department stores in turn became a casualty (not quite yet perhaps) when the super specialty stores began to concentrate on prime areas of their business.

Ingrained management ideas are hard to change. And most of the time the old line organizations fade away. Once in a while these old line companies are able to re-organize their operations to become a profitable, yet distinctly different company.

In this book change is analyzed in terms of the effect that various types of change have on the existing players. Some are gradual, the base business remains the same, the core activities and core assets are stable. But some changes are radical. If you build buggy whips and Henry Ford comes along....

Rating:
Summary: Just Plain Old Logic
Review: This is a book definitely worth reading. While the concepts can be second nature to someone who considers themselves a strategic thinker, the way Dr. McGahan defines the different types of competitive environments and they ways to achieve success within them is simple and yet insightful. Any business person should put this on their must read list.