Written in 2006 with the bubble of the 90’s clearly in the past, Dealing with Darwin explores the struggle to deliver profitable products and services as their ecosystems get more brutal and as competitive advantage gaps get narrower.
The Darwinian struggle to deliver profitable products and services can be truly brutal. What you invent today is likely to be copied soon by someone else — and copied better, cheaper, and faster. Many companies thrive during the early stages of their life cycle, reveling in bursts of energy and advancement, only to fall slack during periods of inertia and die out while others surge ahead.
Dealing with Darwin offers a unified theory of the evolution of markets and how it rewards different kinds of innovations at each stage. Drawing on hundreds of different examples, it illuminates how established
companies can forestall their own extinction — not by throwing resources wildly at every potential
innovation, but by investing in what the market would most value from them now.
Dealing with Darwin will help you understand your company’s role in its market ecosystem; where your
competitive advantage came from in the past and how it will change in the future; what kinds of
differentiation will be most rewarded in your current marketplace; and how to transform your internal
dynamics to overcome the inertia that threatens every bold innovation.