46 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 19: On Playing Chess
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## Core Focus
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Foundational strategic principles using Wardley Maps. Strategy = understanding landscapes, honest self-assessment, deliberate resource allocation.
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## Stepping Stones
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Effective strategy creates "stepping stones that expand future possibilities" rather than gambling. Three methods for map-based advantage identification:
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1. Combine evolved components to create higher-order activities in uncharted territory
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2. Find efficiencies by breaking costly dependencies within value chains
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3. Identify components approaching commodity despite market inertia
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Key distinction: opportunities expand future options; gambling narrows them. "Just because you could do something doesn't mean you should."
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## Policy Over Technology
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Strategic advantage doesn't always require technology. Pharmaceutical supply chain example: address opacity through policy mechanisms (opening regulatory systems, public transparency campaigns) rather than technology mandates.
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## Capital Evolution and Purchasing Context
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"Stocks" of capital (activities, practices, data, knowledge) evolve through stages. Evolution transforms assets into liabilities. Purchasing must align with evolutionary position:
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- **Uncharted/novel**: venture capital or time-and-materials
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- **Developing**: outcome-based contracts with targets
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- **Established product**: commercial off-the-shelf
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- **Industrialized**: unit or utility-based pricing
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Challenges traditional accounting which treats capital as static.
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## Key Examples
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**Fotango**: mapping identified infrastructure would become a constraint, leading to strategic pivot toward cloud. Analysis was sound; parent company politics killed it.
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**Stewart Butterfield's pivots**: failed game (Ludicorp) -> Flickr -> failed game (Tiny Speck) -> Slack. Success through flexible repositioning, not singular focus.
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**Regulatory mapping**: how regulators can map stakeholder needs and capital flows to identify policy levers.
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## Key Takeaways
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1. Honesty is foundational - acknowledge actual competitive position
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2. Expand possibilities, don't reduce them
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3. Evolution creates context-specific requirements for purchasing, accounting, methodology
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4. Maps' primary value is facilitating strategic discourse and post-action review
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5. Policy shapes outcomes as powerfully as technology
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6. Inertia is dual-edged: prevents premature industrialization but catastrophic when ignored during actual transitions
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