55 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
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# Chapter 2: Finding a Path
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## Core Problem
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Businesses are living, constantly evolving systems. Strategy tools must capture both structure and change over time.
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## Four Stages of Evolution
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Components move across four maturity stages (x-axis):
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1. **Genesis** - unique, rare, uncertain, constantly changing (exploration)
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2. **Custom Built** - uncommon, artisan, bespoke, frequently changing (learning)
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3. **Product** - increasingly common, repeatable, manufactured (refining)
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4. **Commodity/Utility** - standardized, high-volume, undifferentiated, invisible (efficiency)
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Competition drives this evolution: desire for advantage creates novel solutions; desire to keep up spreads them until commonplace.
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## The Wardley Map Framework
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Core elements:
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1. **Visual** representation
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2. **Context-specific** to your business at that moment
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3. **Anchor**: user and their needs (y-axis = visibility/value)
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4. **Position**: components arranged by dependency and visibility
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5. **Movement**: components evolving left-to-right toward commoditization
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Additional elements: flow (communication/resources between components), types (activities, practices, data, knowledge), climatic patterns.
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## Three-Step Mapping Process
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**Step 1 - Define User Needs**: Identify scope and genuine user requirements (not wants). Distinguish between user needs and business needs.
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**Step 2 - Create Value Chain**: Use post-it notes with teams. Place visible user-facing items higher, supporting infrastructure lower. All maps are imperfect - don't aim for perfection.
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**Step 3 - Add Evolution**: Position each component by ubiquity, competitor usage, product availability, novelty. This step generates healthy debate.
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## Key Insight: Standardization Enables Complexity
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Once components commoditize, they become building blocks for more sophisticated systems. Maudslay's screw-cutting lathe (1800) enabled standardized, interchangeable parts, which enabled complex machinery and modern mass production.
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## Key Examples
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- **Thomas Thwaites' toaster**: building from scratch costs £1,000+ for 5 seconds of function, showing how products depend on standardized components
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- **Nokia**: paper mill (1865) -> rubber -> consumer electronics -> telecoms, showing "core" business transforms over time
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## Key Takeaways
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1. Maps must show both structure (value chain) and dynamics (evolution)
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2. Components naturally flow from novel to commonplace driven by competition
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3. Higher-positioned items have more user visibility; lower items are invisible infrastructure
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4. Common mistake: treating components by how you build them rather than actual market maturity
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5. Effective mapping requires cross-functional teams challenging assumptions
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6. A "good enough" map in 2-4 hours beats a perfect map that's never completed
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7. Mapping cannot be outsourced - strategic learning requires organizational practice
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