Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win

Zhu, Feng; Cao, Bonnie Yining

ISBN 10: 1647826047 / ISBN 13: 9781647826048

Published by Harvard Business School Press, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 401274799

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1647826047
• ISBN 13: 9781647826048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A fresh, research-based look at how companies can better compete, on their own terms, with tech giants—from a Harvard Business School professor and a former Bloomberg journalist.

Companies are fighting the wrong battle. The consensus has been to learn the best practices from tech giants and then imitate them. But new paths for growth aren't created by imitation; they're forged by radical differentiation.

In Smart Rivals, Harvard Business School professor Feng Zhu and former Bloomberg journalist Bonnie Yining Cao show business leaders how to create competitive advantages by offering product features and benefits that tech giants and other competitors cannot match in the digital/AI age.

Taking readers on a global journey, Zhu and Cao showcase a variety of companies—including Domino's, Nike, and Sephora—and fascinating case studies, such as Belle, the leading women's footwear retailer in China; EbonyLife, Nigeria's top media conglomerate; and Telepass, Italy's popular electronic toll payment service. Through these diverse examples, they illustrate how companies identify their path for growth in the digital age by leveraging their unique capabilities.

Drawing on original research and insights gleaned from leaders in a wide range of industries, Smart Rivals is a blueprint for uncovering your company's hidden strengths. It will help you spark innovative solutions and capabilities—including new products, services, strategies, and advantages—that mere imitation could never provide.

About the Author

Feng Zhu, MBA Class of 1958 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, is an expert on competitive strategies, digital transformation, and innovation. He codirects the Platform Lab at the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard.

Bonnie Yining Cao is an award-winning former journalist for Bloomberg. She has written extensively about companies in tech and traditional industries in the United States and emerging markets. She is currently pursuing her PhD in business administration at Harvard Business School.