It taught that business success lay in foresight. A company should ask itself what compelling customer benefits it could provide 5 or 10 years down the road. And it should set about building the necessary competencies. Without dismissing his earlier work, he now believes it is no longer possible to peer out 5 or 10 years and conclude much of anything useful. His new book speaks to the business rank and file, and only marginally to the executive suite.
Success now lies in becoming an incubator of new business concepts.
And the idea is far more important than the execution. But the future will be far different from all we have known. Rule-busting innovation is the way to win. Companies will compete not in products and services but in the ability to devise ideas for innovative businesses. Competing in creating different business concepts is nothing new.