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person1980s–present

Hamilton Helmer

Disciplines:
business strategy
economics/economic theory
business strategy/competitive advantage analysis

Summary

American strategist and author of 7 Powers, which provides a rigorous economic framework for identifying the sources of durable business advantage.

Core Contribution

Developed the 7 Powers framework — identifying Counter-Positioning, Scale Economies, Switching Costs, Network Economies, Cost Leadership, Cornered Resource, and Process Power as the exhaustive taxonomy of durable competitive moats.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • Exhaustive Enumeration as Strategic Method (claims 7 Powers is complete — there are exactly seven sources of durable advantage, no more — a falsifiable claim most strategists would never make)
  • Benefit-Barrier Duality as Definitional Core (insists a true power must simultaneously deliver a benefit to the firm AND impose a barrier on competitors — half the equation is never sufficient)

Notable Works & Achievements

7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy

Historical Influences

Michael Porter Alfred Chandler Joseph Schumpeter

Intellectual Lineage

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

Contemporaries & Peers

Michael Porter Roger Martin Rita McGrathClayton Christensen

Minds Influenced

Ben Gilbert David Rosenthal Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Intellectual Posterity

7 Powers framework Power as named concept in business strategy

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Hamilton Helmer

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