The Content Trap

A Strategist's Guide to Digital Change

By: Bharat Anand

Narrated by: Jason Culp

“My favorite book of the year.”—Doug McMillon, CEO, Wal-Mart Stores

Harvard Business School Professor of Strategy Bharat Anand presents an incisive new approach to digital transformation that favors fostering connectivity over focusing exclusively on content.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG

Companies everywhere face two major challenges today: getting noticed and getting paid. To confront these obstacles, Bharat Anand examines a range of businesses around the world, from The New York Times to The Economist, from Chinese Internet giant Tencent to Scandinavian digital trailblazer Schibsted, and from talent management to the future of education. Drawing on these stories and on the latest research in economics, strategy, and marketing, this refreshingly engaging book reveals important lessons, smashes celebrated myths, and reorients strategy.

Success for flourishing companies comes not from making the best content but from recognizing how content enables customers’ connectivity; it comes not from protecting the value of content at all costs but from unearthing related opportunities close by; and it comes not from mimicking competitors’ best practices but from seeing choices as part of a connected whole.

Digital change means that everyone today can reach and interact with others directly: We are all in the content business. But that comes with risks that Bharat Anand teaches us how to recognize and navigate. Filled with conversations with key players and in-depth dispatches from the front lines of digital change, The Content Trap is an essential new playbook for navigating the turbulent waters in which we find ourselves.

Includes a PDF of Images, Charts, and Graphs

Praise for The Content Trap

“A masterful and thought-provoking book that has reshaped my understanding of content in the digital landscape.”—Ariel Emanuel, co-CEO, WME | IMG

“The Content Trap is a book filled with stories of businesses, from music companies to magazine publishers, that missed connections and could never escape the narrow views that had brought them past success. But it is also filled with stories of those who made strategic choices to strengthen the links between content and returns in their new master plans. . . . The book is a call to clear thinking and reassessing why things are the way they are.”—The Wall Street Journal

Connections/Content

Brilliant & Practical.
Main Takeaway = Marketers should value Connections over Content.
The Trap is prioritizing otherwise.

Great overview of brands history

I was expecting more about content creation or decisions but the book is on a higher level.

When I assumed it would be different I started to enjoy looking at so many examples and understand the content gap narrative.

It all makes sense and I would definitely recommend this book

Some slow parts, but worth every minute

There were a couple parts that took some pushing through, but once I got to the second part it was one of the most informative and interesting books I've listened to on the subject.

A must read!!

Would you listen to The Content Trap again? Why?

Great Insights, great lessons, stimulating and thought provoking concepts

What other book might you compare The Content Trap to and why?

.. Ha.. "HBS Business and Strategy". Feels like I'm taking a great course

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Pretty much!

Any additional comments?

I would highly recommend it for following reasons:-
1) It's very important to ask right question when you are dealing with a complex problem. Anand is so great in showing you how to analyze a situation and ask the right question. This book will blow your mind and you learn a great deal.

2) Best book to get up to speed with technology and disruptive changes that impact businesses particularly Media and TMT. It will help you foresee what's coming and how to prepare.

I know, we are all pressed with time and we want to be very selective.. I read about 1 book/week. Believe me this book is worth spending your time.. I would have preferred that author had also brought more latest perspective in few traditional businesses such as in Walmart case etc but technology, media and TMT are very well covered

Insightful

This book really makes you think. It is a real game changer for people involved in content creation/marketing.