# Chapter 2: Finding a Path

## Core Problem

Businesses are living, constantly evolving systems. Strategy tools must capture both structure and change over time.

## Four Stages of Evolution

Components move across four maturity stages (x-axis):

1. **Genesis** - unique, rare, uncertain, constantly changing (exploration)
2. **Custom Built** - uncommon, artisan, bespoke, frequently changing (learning)
3. **Product** - increasingly common, repeatable, manufactured (refining)
4. **Commodity/Utility** - standardized, high-volume, undifferentiated, invisible (efficiency)

Competition drives this evolution: desire for advantage creates novel solutions; desire to keep up spreads them until commonplace.

## The Wardley Map Framework

Core elements:
1. **Visual** representation
2. **Context-specific** to your business at that moment
3. **Anchor**: user and their needs (y-axis = visibility/value)
4. **Position**: components arranged by dependency and visibility
5. **Movement**: components evolving left-to-right toward commoditization

Additional elements: flow (communication/resources between components), types (activities, practices, data, knowledge), climatic patterns.

## Three-Step Mapping Process

**Step 1 - Define User Needs**: Identify scope and genuine user requirements (not wants). Distinguish between user needs and business needs.

**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.

**Step 3 - Add Evolution**: Position each component by ubiquity, competitor usage, product availability, novelty. This step generates healthy debate.

## Key Insight: Standardization Enables Complexity

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.

## Key Examples

- **Thomas Thwaites' toaster**: building from scratch costs £1,000+ for 5 seconds of function, showing how products depend on standardized components
- **Nokia**: paper mill (1865) -> rubber -> consumer electronics -> telecoms, showing "core" business transforms over time

## Key Takeaways

1. Maps must show both structure (value chain) and dynamics (evolution)
2. Components naturally flow from novel to commonplace driven by competition
3. Higher-positioned items have more user visibility; lower items are invisible infrastructure
4. Common mistake: treating components by how you build them rather than actual market maturity
5. Effective mapping requires cross-functional teams challenging assumptions
6. A "good enough" map in 2-4 hours beats a perfect map that's never completed
7. Mapping cannot be outsourced - strategic learning requires organizational practice