The Future of Competitive Strategy: Unleashing the Power of Data and Digital Ecosystems (Management on the Cutting Edge)
Mohan Subramaniam
The MIT Press (November 2022)

Here’s your choice: Either drive data with the right plan or be driven by someone else’s. 

I wholly agree with Mohan Subramaniam: Whatever their size and nature may be, almost all organizations “can unlock new value from data through their digital ecosystems to execute a digital competitive advantage. All of the chapters in this book rally around this core theme.” In this brilliant book, Subramaniam explains HOW.

More specifically, he shares lessons to be learned from “digital titans” that have harnessed the power of data; explains how APIs (application program interfaces) offer the foundations for a digital ecosystem strategy; how legacy firms should view their digitaln ecosystems; how to unlock the value of data in production ecosystems, and, how to unlock the value of data in consumptive ecosystems; how digital customers differ from legacy customers; how digital competitors differ from other competitors; how digital capabilities differ from prevailing industrial era capabilities…and how to build them; how legacy firms should manage rising concerns about data privacy and data-driven competitive advantage; and finally, how to decide what an organization’s digital competitive advantage should be…and NOT be. Then, how to implement it effectively.

These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me also listed to suggest the scope of Subramaniam’s coverage:

o Introduction (Pages 1-25)
Note: The material in this section is so valuable that I highly recommend that it be re-read at least every month after the complete book has been read. It “sets the table” for the abundance of information, insights, and counsel that follows. It also contains invaluable reminders of key points.

o Production systems (10-11, 22-23, 55-57, and 93-119Consumption ecosystems (10-13, 22-23, 85-88, 176-178, 205-206, 215-217, and 241-242)
o Digital competitive strategy (15-17 and 237-264)
o Digital competitors (23-24 and 169-197)
o Digital platforms (28-33, 129-131, and 163-164)

o Application program interfaces(43-47 and 209-210)
o Digital ecosystems (59-91)
o Competitive networks (69-71 and 79-84)
o AI technology (76-77 and 96-97)
o Data-driven services (78-79, 85-86, and 109-116)

o Construction equipment (105-106, and 175-176)
o From Complementor Networks to Consumption Networks (79-82)
o Revenue Generation, and, Mass Customization (111-112 and 1122-114)
o Banking services (126-132 and 225-226)
o Sensor data control (132-134 and 225-226)
o Digital customers (149-168)

o Competitive patterns in digital ecosystems (171-188)
o Competitive patterns (180-187)
o Digital capabilities (195-222, 209-213, 218-220, and 261-262)
o Regulatory Forces Shaping the Role of Data (233-236)
o Telecommunications and 5G: Emerging Opportunities in Consumption Ecosystems (249-253)

Obviously, no brief commentary such as mine can do full justice to the value of material that Mohan Subramaniam provides but I hope I have at least indicated why I hold him and his work in such high regard. The business world today is far more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, and more ambiguous than at any prior time that I can recall. In my opinion, the future of competitive strategy has already arrived — albeit with widely varying distribution — and this book is a “must read” for those who respond to all manner of challenges in months and years to come.

Here are two concluding suggestions: While reading The Future of Competitive Strategy, I urge you to highlight key passages, and, record your comments, questions, action steps (preferably with deadlines) and page references as well as your responses to questions posed throughout the narrative and to lessons you have learned.  These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent reviews of key material later.