Lords of Strategy

11.

Breaking the Worldinto Finer Pieces

IMPLEMENTATION WAS NOT THE only problem dogging the strategy revolution as it tried to consolidate its gains. The tools had to be continually sharpened, if not discarded altogether for something else, as began to become apparent in the 1970s and by the 1980s was glaringly obvious. The experience curve in particular needed reexamination. To their surprise, consultants were also discovering that there appeared to be industries for which low cost was no guarantee of competitive advantage. Enter the possibilities for differentiation.

For all that, the bulk of the consultants’ work under the banner of strategy was still about costs, mostly about how to reduce them. With Michael Porter’s introduction of the ...