Unlocking the Customer Value Chain

How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption

By: Thales S. Teixeira, Greg Piechota

Narrated by: Tom Weitzel

Based on six years of research, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira shows how and why industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do to respond--as well as what potential startups must master if they hope to gain a competitive edge.

As it turns out, there is a pattern to disruption in an industry, whether the disruptor is Uber, Airbnb, or a dozen other startups that have shaken up incumbents and threatened the status quo.

For disruptors to pose a threat to an industry, they have to successfully break the link in choosing, purchasing, or consuming a product or service. Upstarts, Teixeira shows, do not attempt to compete with or overtake a reigning incumbent company entirely. Instead, they work to peel away a portion of the consumer decision-making process, the way Birchbox offered women a new way to sample new beauty products from a variety of cosmetics and fragrance companies, without having to go to the Revlon or Estee Lauder store. Zipcar doesn't attempt to compete head to head with GM but rather to offer people who need transportation an alternative way to get around, without owning a car themselves, or being responsible for fuel, maintenance, or insurance.

In a penetrating narrative filled with case studies and stories, Teixeira shows us how startups successfully disrupt industries--and what industry leaders must do to avoid being disrupted and protect their domain.

Includes a bonus PDF of figures and tables

Great read!

Really interesting way to look at disruptive companies. Gives interesting and current examples from cool companies’ case studies, and bases everything upon research. Recommended for strategy and marketing professionals!

Insightful

A great insight in understanding the touch points and the vulnerability of all businesses. The need to have a great customer knowledge, behavior and trend in planning and positioning your business to ride the next wave in a profitable way.

Decoupling is a very useful 'lens'

The act of breaking things down to their simplest components (decoupling) is not new. Applying this concept to the customer value chain (CVC), however, is refreshingly insightful. This book provides a useful and lasting lens I would highly recommend applying to internal and external business analysis.

One of the most OUTSTANDING business books I have ever read!

This is more valuable than an MBA, you have two read it as many times as you can. Every time you will discover another valuable lesson.

Like "The Lean Startup"? You'll love this book!

As a tech entrepreneur schooled by Eric Reis' "The Lean Startup", I tend to think of technology as being the driving force behind the success of my business. This book taught me otherwise!

Through carefully examining the customer value chain in my vertical I was able to truly discern between business model drivers, e.g. which activities I make better for the customer, how I do it, when I intersect the customer's decision making process, how much I charge, from business model enablers (data, algorithms, platforms). With this newly acquired clarity, I am better equipped to problem solve on behalf of the consumer.

What is more, having to always go back to the Customer Value Chain and check my assumptions is not just illuminating, it is also truly transformative as it forces a much higher dose of empathy for my customer than I had ever had before. The author himself exhibits tremendous empathy by providing in depth examples of successes AND failures in serving customers.

If you have an entrepreneurial dream of providing something new or better to the world, read this book! It will help you think about your dream the right way, and you'll be off to the races!