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The Future of Competitive Strategy

Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems (Management on the Cutting Edge)

By Mohan Subramaniam

312 pages

Hardcover

Overview

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Overview

Book preview

Press

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Mohan Subramaniam offers a new paradigm for competitive strategy essential for all firms that desire to remain relevant in the digital era. This book provides a unique perspective for firms on the quest for competitive advantage.

Jahangir Doongaji Member of the Executive Board and designated CEO, Hilti Corporation

This insightful book contains a pragmatic digital framework with great examples for business leaders and practitioners to strategically leverage the power of data and digital to create a sustainable competitive advantage for their firms.

Anantha Radhakrishnan CEO and Managing Director, Infosys BPM Ltd

Mohan Subramaniam does a great job of outlining how companies can get value from their digital transformation journeys. His ability to weave technology with strategy and harness the new expanded role of data will be very helpful for business leaders.

Joe Preston President and CEO, New Balance Athletics, Inc

The book is a must-read for industrial companies to effectively compete in the new digital world. The time to be ‘future ready’ is now and this book provides valuable insights into how to do so.

Fabio Marasi President and CEO, Walvoil S.p.A.

Mohan’s book provides a framework for any company to balance the pressures of managing present customers with the demands of creating future customers. Discovering value in digital customers, competitors, and capabilities and building a competitive strategy is an important idea that should permeate the strategic thinking at all companies.

Praveen K. Kopalle Signal Companies' Professor of Management, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth

How can legacy firms remain relevant in the digital era? In The Future of Competitive Strategy, strategic management expert Mohan Subramaniam explains how firms can leverage both their traditional strengths and the modern-day power of data and digital ecosystems to forge a new competitive strategy. Drawing on the experiences of a range of companies, including Caterpillar, Sleep Number, and Whirlpool, he explains how firms can benefit from data’s enlarged role in modern business, develop digital ecosystems tailored to their unique business needs, and use new frameworks to harness the power of data for competitive advantage.

Subramaniam presents digital ecosystems as a combination of production and consumption ecosystems, which can be used by legacy firms to unlock the value of data at various levels—from improving operational efficiencies to creating new data-driven services and transforming traditional products into digital platforms. He explores the ways sensors and the Internet of Things provide new kinds of customer data; presents the concept of digital competitors—other firms that have access to similar data; discusses the new digital capabilities that firms need to develop; and addresses privacy and security issues associated with data sharing.

Who needs this book? Any firm that wants to revitalize traditional business models, offer a richer customer experience, and expand its competitive arena into new digital ecosystems.

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

This book is part of a series

Is your company squandering digital opportunities?
The future of competitive strategy: Unleashing the power of data and digital ecosystems

This book is part of a series

Is your company squandering digital opportunities?
The future of competitive strategy: Unleashing the power of data and digital ecosystems

Hardcover

eBook

You can also buy the book on Barnes & Nobles, Book Depository, Orell Füssli and Routledge.

Publisher

MIT Press

ISBN

978-0262046992

Mohan Subramaniam

Mohan Subramaniam is Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has trained senior executives around the world on digital competitive strategy and strategic…

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Is Your Company Squandering Digital Opportunities?

Many companies today fail to see the threats and opportunities that new digital technologies represent.

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Are You Using the Right Data to Power Your Digital Transformation?

Most legacy firms rely on episodic data, generated by discrete events such as the shipment of a component from a supplier, or the sale of a product.

The Pathway to Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is a top strategic priority for business leaders today. IDC estimates that firms will invest around $6.8 trillion between 2020–2023 for this objective.

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Case reference: IMD-7-2455 ©2024

Summary

In the 2010s, card processing – Mastercard’s flagship service – started showing signs of commodification as new, nimble players (typically, fintech startups thriving on digital) entered the payment processing space, and customer preferences evolved beyond plastic cards and traditional contact payments. To re-energize its central position and its ability to capture value, Mastercard – as the incumbent – had to make bold decisions. The case details Mastercard’s approach to conceptualizing and building a global platform ecosystem that upholds the principles and design elements of modularity (i.e. interoperability and scalability) and optionality. Today, Mastercard's services, based on application programming interfaces (APIs), integrate with a variety of platforms and offer flexibility to businesses that require customized payment solutions. All along, the company has accommodated a high level of internal disruption. The case also explores the nature of Mastercard’s systematic collaboration with fintechs – players that often started out as competitors in specific parts of Mastercard’s value chain. It describes the company’s engagement with fintechs as fostering collaboration and co-creation and facilitating access; in other words, opening doors and sharing tools with partners. The case presents observations and quotes by CEO Michael Miebach, whose career trajectory at Mastercard – spanning Africa & Middle East experience, fintech partnerships, product management and the CEO role – sheds additional light on the philosophy and values that have driven the company’s transformation to a technology powerhouse and self-described original fintech.

Reference IMD-7-2455

Organization Mastercard

Industry Finance and Insurance, Financial Services

Available Languages English

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Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications

Related topics

Disruption

Digital

Strategy

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