HBR Digital Strategies: Aggressive and Defensive – Aggressive is more Successful

Excellent article at Harvard Business Review (not Cornell, but good anyway): https://hbr.org/…/6-digital-strategies-and-why-some-work-be…

Defines the 6 key strategies for digital (and % of surveyed companies trying them) – first 3 considered ‘offensive’ while last 3 considered ‘defensive’:

1) (33%) Platform Play – being a digital middle-man

2) (13%) New Marginal Supply – accessing new sources of supply (often along with platform)

3) (55%) Digitally Enabled Products/Services – new features using connectivity

4) (60%) Rebundling & Customising – including personalisation, eg for media sites

5) (60%) Digital Distribution Channels – from online presence to publishing to platform

6) (50%) Cost efficiencies – automation, acceleration, quality

More successful companies were found to use the ‘offensive’ strategies while less successful ones use the ‘defensive’ ones. They did not, however identify if those companies were more able to be aggressive because they were already successful, or if they were more successful because they were more aggressive – digitally or otherwise.

Which is the chicken, and which is the egg?

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