Great piece, Francis, you've nailed the phenomenon. I've seen it play out across sector after sector: everyone's strategy quietly converges until the field looks like a mirror maze.
That said, I think there are at least two underexplored moves that could break the spell in a meaningful number of cases:
1. Start from your own firm's heterogeneity, not the industry's homogeneity.
Back in 2018-19 in Brazil, I watched five of the country's biggest retailers converge on the exact same goal: becoming "the Amazon of Brazil." The contenders were MercadoLivre, MagazineLuiza, Casas Bahia, Americanas, and (ironically) Amazon Brazil itself. Yet each had a radically different starting position. MercadoLivre was an online-only marketplace with a massive head start. MagazineLuiza was a brick-and-mortar retailer that had already completed a genuine digital transformation. Casas Bahia lagged digitally but had an extraordinary core strength in consumer financing. Americanas was scrappy and hyper-efficient across categories (though, as we later learned, that "efficiency" had a rather creative accounting explanation). And Amazon was visibly reluctant to commit the full resources the market required. Instead of building outward from those distinct strengths, all five sprinted into the same ring. The outcome was entirely predictable: MercadoLivre won decisively, Amazon held its ground, and the rest took a serious beating.
2. Practice "framework arbitrage."
When companies keep hiring the same consulting firms, they end up feeding the same inputs into the same processes. Especially since many clients actively screen for experience with direct competitors. But the real advantage almost certainly lies in differentiation. Even frameworks from thinkers like Rumelt and Roger Martin, whose books are genuinely excellent, rarely get applied with any rigor in practice. There's real, untapped value in forcing strategic inputs through methodologies that most players in the room simply aren't using yet!
Well said. I happen to be writing an article offering a new take on the Blue Ocean - Red Ocean aspiration. (It’s not really a strategy at all.)
It has to do with timeline stretching which means that in addition to doing the usual 5-year plan, a company looks 200 or 100 or 50 or 30 years into the future.
Whatever it takes to break the old mold of homogenous thinking. While an outside firm could do the exercise, that defeats the larger purpose. And also prevents implementation.
Great piece, Francis, you've nailed the phenomenon. I've seen it play out across sector after sector: everyone's strategy quietly converges until the field looks like a mirror maze.
That said, I think there are at least two underexplored moves that could break the spell in a meaningful number of cases:
1. Start from your own firm's heterogeneity, not the industry's homogeneity.
Back in 2018-19 in Brazil, I watched five of the country's biggest retailers converge on the exact same goal: becoming "the Amazon of Brazil." The contenders were MercadoLivre, MagazineLuiza, Casas Bahia, Americanas, and (ironically) Amazon Brazil itself. Yet each had a radically different starting position. MercadoLivre was an online-only marketplace with a massive head start. MagazineLuiza was a brick-and-mortar retailer that had already completed a genuine digital transformation. Casas Bahia lagged digitally but had an extraordinary core strength in consumer financing. Americanas was scrappy and hyper-efficient across categories (though, as we later learned, that "efficiency" had a rather creative accounting explanation). And Amazon was visibly reluctant to commit the full resources the market required. Instead of building outward from those distinct strengths, all five sprinted into the same ring. The outcome was entirely predictable: MercadoLivre won decisively, Amazon held its ground, and the rest took a serious beating.
2. Practice "framework arbitrage."
When companies keep hiring the same consulting firms, they end up feeding the same inputs into the same processes. Especially since many clients actively screen for experience with direct competitors. But the real advantage almost certainly lies in differentiation. Even frameworks from thinkers like Rumelt and Roger Martin, whose books are genuinely excellent, rarely get applied with any rigor in practice. There's real, untapped value in forcing strategic inputs through methodologies that most players in the room simply aren't using yet!
Well said. I happen to be writing an article offering a new take on the Blue Ocean - Red Ocean aspiration. (It’s not really a strategy at all.)
It has to do with timeline stretching which means that in addition to doing the usual 5-year plan, a company looks 200 or 100 or 50 or 30 years into the future.
Whatever it takes to break the old mold of homogenous thinking. While an outside firm could do the exercise, that defeats the larger purpose. And also prevents implementation.