The Brains and Brawn Company: How Leading Organizations Blend the Best of Digital and Physical

CHAPTER 1

TODAY’S TRUE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Are you tired of hearing that digital transformation is the most important issue facing companies today? Me, too. Sometimes, while someone is going on and on about it in my classroom at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, or in a pitch meeting at my Silicon Valley venture capital firm, I feel like banging my head against the wall.

Don’t get me wrong—of course, digitization is a massive and massively important trend. Leaders in every industry need to wrestle with it. But despite fervent preaching from the Silicon Valley faithful, it’s not the only kind of competency that matters. The less flashy, more grounded aspects of business, such as logistics and manufacturing, are still crucial to the ...