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book2016

7 Powers

Disciplines:
business strategy
business strategy/competitive advantage theory
economics

Summary

Hamilton Helmer's 2016 book presenting a rigorous economic taxonomy of the seven sources of durable business advantage, used by Acquired as the analytical backbone for every company they profile.

Core Contribution

Provides the most actionable and complete framework for diagnosing business moats — identifying Counter-Positioning, Scale Economies, Switching Costs, Network Economies, Cost Leadership, Cornered Resource, and Process Power as an exhaustive and mutually exclusive taxonomy.

Historical Influences

Hamilton Helmer

Intellectual Lineage

Strategic Management Theory Industrial Organization Economics Porter's Five Forces Tradition

Allied Works

Good Strategy Bad Strategy Competitive Strategy Zero to One Playing to Win

Contemporaries & Peers

Good Strategy Bad Strategy Playing to Win Competitive Strategy Zero to One

Minds Influenced

Ben Gilbert David Rosenthal Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Intellectual Posterity

7 Powers framework

Discussing

7 Powers

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