As a mar­ket­ing strate­gist, I often get a bird’s eye view of how high tech com­pa­nies approach com­pet­i­tive strat­egy. It can be sur­pris­ing to see how lit­tle “qual­ity time” is allo­cated to a thought­ful analy­sis of the under­ly­ing dri­vers of the com­pet­i­tive envi­ron­ment, or assess­ing which moves are likely to lead to the best results. As a result com­pa­nies fail to get the com­pet­i­tive advan­tage they seek, and over time fall prey to the forces of com­modi­ti­za­tion. [Read more…]