Own the Future: 50 Ways to Win from The Boston Consulting Group

Chapter 1

Why Strategy Needs a Strategy

Martin Reeves, Michael Deimler, Claire Love, and Philipp Tillmanns

Abridged and reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2012 by Harvard Business Publishing; all rights reserved.

The oil industry holds relatively few surprises for strategists. Things change, of course, sometimes dramatically, but in relatively predictable ways. Planners know, for instance, that global supply will rise and fall as geopolitical forces play out and new resources are discovered and exploited. They know that demand will rise and fall with gross domestic products (GDPs), weather conditions, and the like. Because these factors are outside companies' control, no one is really in a position to change the game much. A company carefully marshals its unique capabilities and resources to stake out and defend its competitive position in this fairly stable firmament.

The Internet software industry would be a nightmare for an oil industry strategist. Innovations and new companies pop up frequently, seemingly out of nowhere, and the pace at which companies can build—or lose—volume and market share is head-spinning. A player like Google or Facebook can, without much warning, introduce a new platform that fundamentally alters the basis of competition. In this environment, competitive advantage comes from reading and responding to signals faster than your rivals do, adapting quickly ...