Strategic Moat
Defensible choices about where to play and how to win — including what not to do.
Tradeoffs · Timing · Capabilities · Market position
What it is
Advantage created by deliberate choices and tradeoffs that fit together so well that competitors cannot easily imitate them piecemeal.
Why it matters
Operational excellence alone can be copied. A coherent set of choices — and the discipline to say no — is much harder to replicate.
How to cultivate it
- Write down what you will not do, and why.
- Align activities so they reinforce one another.
- Revisit your position as conditions change, without abandoning it at the first difficulty.
Where it can fail
- Trying to serve everyone and becoming distinctive to no one.
- Mistaking a plan for a strategy.
- Holding a position long after the world has moved.
Examples
- Michael Porter argued that strategy is about making tradeoffs and creating fit among activities, distinguishing it from operational effectiveness. — Harvard Business Review — What Is Strategy? (1996)
Further reading
Essays on this theme are in preparation. Visit Insights.