The more important inference is that understanding the value chain is at once a challenge and an opportunity. Indeed, the focus should shift to repositioning the value providing chain as an enabler for growth. In the face of these developments, continuing to think and operate with the same roles and business processes as before, will not bring commercial success nor respite from today's pressures. Any actions taken will make sense only if they contribute to the reconstruction of a much more efficient industry. There is not a prescriptive solution to reinventing the value chain.
Every company is different.
The solution is necessarily situation dependent, but there is a systematic way to become prepared to seize the opportunity. The approach outlined here allows a company, either small or large, to characterize its own competitive context, and to make an appropriate context-specific plan for itself. There are four keys to prepare one's company for the future. Understand whatbusiness you are in. Be able to clearly articulate what value the organization wants to provide to its customers.