Finding Power

An introduction to Clay Christensen’s most underrated idea: “The Conservation of Modularity”

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Billybush almost 4 years ago

Great article! I'm wondering about the Coca Cola example. I think it is an interesting and powerful one to work through through I feel like I'm missing something - Has the Coke process not reached "good enough"? It seems well past that point (in fact they can NOT change it anymore...). Other drinks have even done very good copies of the Coke test (whether people will admit it or not...). So it seems that the key element that is maintaining their power is shear dominance of the brand. Brand strength with the target market (particularly that strength in relations to competitive solutions) seems to be a universal asset of nearly any point on the value chain. If you are commoditized (or "modularized") but are able to maintain brand dominance, you can maintain power. Obviously brand dominance is not easy since its essentially a zero-sum winner-take-all type of game.

In the other example with Netflix, even though the networks and providers were dominant, their brand strength was dismal, providing an opening for Netflix in spite of the technical challenges they faced. There were also so some very deep pain points as you mentioned.

In fact, going back to Coke, in order to maintain that type of loyalty and dominance, there can't exist any pain points too deep on the value chain. If something comes up as too painful, brand loyalty will wain with a new search for a "painkiller." The soda industry may just be too "good enough" over the entire value chain, not allowing for any innovation to occur or be necessary (aside from the branched market developments like energy drinks, etc. which they address through acquisitions as you mentioned).

Just working through my thoughts... Am I missing something else with the Coke example?

@harkiratsingh3777 over 4 years ago

Awesome piece. I have bookmarked it.

@rcrowat over 4 years ago

Great article. Your passion for this type of thinking really shines through. This has really helped me articulate my thinking about Strava and the issues it faces due to its position in the value chain.

@mike_8038 over 4 years ago

Wow, a really useful concept to understand. Your explanation is clear. The examples are super helpful.The balance between solving a problem, but not solving it so well that it ceases to matter, is interesting. You can't really control this. If you don't solve a problem, someone else will. Just hope that it stays somewhat unsolved.
A vertical I'd like to see analyzed is 'how-to' or informative content. I think up to now, distribution has had all the power (i.e. platforms). But TikTok developed creator tools and were able to build a competing distribution network. Is it possible that power is about to shift to inspiration/creation workflows?

@dafoerst87 over 3 years ago

This is an amazing article and concept. Actually, as I understand it, it sits at the heart of "Choosing your Market and Model", if you start or transform a business.

I am building a Business Accelerator, which is why this super interesting to me to understand. I'd love to dive deeper into strategy around this! What would you recommend I get into next, if the only thing I'm concerned with is Business Strategy and Leadership? Would love to have a chat with you and find ways to map these concepts to real-world application just as you did with Coca Cola and Netflix!

Antoniy Fulmes over 2 years ago

drug development or life sciences devices