The task of continuously renewing a company is the greatest challenge confronting any chief executive. To enable managers to project renewal strategies likely to win in the future, Jeffrey Williams has constructed a dynamic road map of outcomes in what he calls "economic time," based on a ten-year study of growth, decline, and renewal patterns of hundreds of companies in forty-five industries. In this superbly readable book, Williams's revolutionary, award-winning concept of slow-, standard-, and fast-cycle economic time provides a unifying business language that the multicycle manager can use to compare the renewal opportunities of widely diverse products, companies, and markets.
Using examples and studies from companies such as Starbucks, McDonald's, UPS, Compaq, Sony, Merck, Disney, Toyota, IKEA, Microsoft, Sony, Intel, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Chrysler, and Hewlett-Packard, Williams explains that the key idea in economic time is being able to manage products and organizations according to the speed and means by which economic value arises, decays, and is renewed. The drivers of economic time are isolating mechanisms -- a firm's unique capabilities that lie at the heart of its competitive advantage -- and that, in Williams's framework, "delay" product obsolescence. Building on his intuitively appealing model, Williams describes how his three laws of renewal -- convergence, alignment, and renewal -- provide guidelines by which managers can gain command over strategy in complex, dynamic competitive situations.
Renewable Advantage is not only essential reading but also will become a standard reference for senior and division managers, business scientists and strategists, and general managers in all industries.
Industry Reviews
Alfred Rappaport author of "Creating Shareholder Value, " Leonard Spacek Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University An important contribution for managers and investors alike. Demonstrating the fleeting nature of competitive advantage, Williams offers well-reasoned, widely applicable renewal strategies. His concept of economic time and renewable strategy models also help investors assess the reasonableness of the competitive advantage period implied by a company's stock price.
David Teece Director, Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley Jeff Williams has richly illustrated the dynamics of competition in a wide variety of industrial contexts. The focus is on building competitive advantage through innovation and renewal. Provocative, well written, and informed by scholarship.
Jim Rohr President, PNC Bank ...powerful stuff. The ideas in this book not only make you sound smart fast -- they actually do make you smarter. People who read this book will have an advantage over those who don't.
Robert S. Kaplan Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business School By explicitly incorporating the notion of economic time into a strategic framework, Jeffrey Williams gives managers a dynamic road map for producing long-term "renewable advantage" an important contribution to strategy theory and especially practice.
Alfred Rappaportauthor of "Creating Shareholder Value," Leonard Spacek Professor Emeritus at Northwestern UniversityAn important contribution for managers and investors alike. Demonstrating the fleeting nature of competitive advantage, Williams offers well-reasoned, widely applicable renewal strategies. His concept of economic time and renewable strategy models also help investors assess the reasonableness of the competitive advantage period implied by a company's stock price.
David TeeceDirector, Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization, Haas School of Business, UC BerkeleyJeff Williams has richly illustrated the dynamics of competition in a wide variety of industrial contexts. The focus is on building competitive advantage through innovation and renewal. Provocative, well written, and informed by scholarship.
Jim RohrPresident, PNC Bank...powerful stuff. The ideas in this book not only make you sound smart fast -- they actually do make you smarter. People who read this book will have an advantage over those who don't.
Robert S. KaplanMarvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Harvard Business SchoolBy explicitly incorporating the notion of economic time into a strategic framework, Jeffrey Williams gives managers a dynamic road map for producing long-term "renewable advantage" an important contribution to strategy theory and especially practice.
