8.4 Chapter Summary

The effective development of growth strategy not only needs to account for the current and future state of customer value and competitive behavior, it also needs to consider how those states of nature will change. Here, we have reviewed some basic tendencies in competitive markets that tend to evolve toward commoditization until a perceptive, fast-learning firm can move it in a different direction. We have also seen how such dynamics can be captured in the 3-Circle framework. Dynamics bring to mind that life and marketplace competitions have some circular elements to them—patterns repeat, influence one another, and the folks who get the quickest understanding of the value sought in the system often end up winning. It is not an endless cycle, however. We have defined a series of 10 discrete steps that will help form the basis for a productive growth strategy project. Our next chapter brings the discussion of growth strategy full circle by summarizing the overall process for strategy development that integrates the core concepts of the first eight chapters.