People-Centered Profit Strategies: 101 Competitive Advantages Book

Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors
Evan I. Schwartz
Harvard Business School Press

Schwartz brilliantly explains "the creative fuel that drives world-class inventors" while explaining, also, that each of them followed a process by which to create possibilities. More specifically, by pinpointing problems to be solved, recognizing what are usually interconnected patterns, "channeling chance" (i.e. serendipity), eliminating or transcending boundaries, detecting barriers in order to remove or overcome them, recognizing and applying appropriate analogies, visualizing probable results, embracing each failure as a learning opportunity, "multiplying insights" as they reveal themselves, and at all times "thinking schematically" (i.e. cohesively). Yes, that's a mouthful but essentially what the process of invention involves. It bears striking similarities with how the human mind functions.

All of the inventors whom Schwartz discusses in this book channeled their creative "juice" the right way. By making new and unexpected connections, they produced that special form of creativity known as invention. According to Schwartz, there has never been a prior time when the need for inventions was greater, inventions that can alleviate and eventually eliminate the world's problems in areas such as healthcare, nutrition, and education. It is Schwartz's expressed hope that those who read this book will be better prepared to "turn on the juice" of their own inventiveness. "We know that brainstorms are electrical, and you need to have many of them if you want to change the world.... So, let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose."

The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability
Marco Iansiti and Roy Levien
Harvard Business School Press

Iansiti and Levien explain "what the new dynamics of business ecosystems mean for strategy, innovation, and sustainability." They point out that, in recent years, in industries as different as personal computers and personal care products, "companies [have] leveraged multiple organizations in distributed supply chains, integrated technological components from a variety of business alliances, collaborated with a number of channel partners to distribute their products, and leveraged complementary services from banks, insurance providers, or retailers." As a result, many industries have been forced to create or become involved in a fully networked structure, one "in which even the simplest product or service is now the result of collaboration among many different organizations." For example, Microsoft and Wal-Mart have a decisive competitive advantage in large measure because they are "keystone" companies in their respective ecosystems. More specifically, both of them understand that "their fate is shared with that of the other members of their business network. Rather than focusing primarily on their internal capabilities (as many of their competitors did), they emphasize the collective properties of the business networks in which they participate, and treat these more like organic ecosystems than traditional supply chain partners. They understand their individual impact on the health of these ecosystems and the respective impact of ecosystem health on their own performance...[For that reason] "a new, holistic approach to strategy is critical to an increasingly broad range of firms in our economy as they face the new set of challenges and responsibilities created by competing in business ecosystems."

All organizations involved in a given ecosystem must, of course, rigorously monitor but also take an active role in nourishing that system's health so as to promote and facilitate the leveraging of an enduring and evolving core. However, it remains for keystones to provide both the vision and the leadership needed, especially in response to market design, operation, and competition. They must also facilitate and support integration, innovation, and adaptation within their ecosystem. "This is the price that keystones must pay for their privileged position at the hub of a business network and as owners of enduring assets: Keystones must manage the health of their ecosystems as a key business strategy. The challenge for each niche player is to decide in which ecosystem to become actively involved with, and, with which keystones to be associated in a strategic alliance.