Editorial Review:
General Motors and IBM have been battered to their cores. Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric, called the frenzied competition of the 1980's "a white knuckle decade" and said the 1990s would be worse. In this pathbreaking book that will define this new age of "hypercompetition," Richard D'Aveni reveals how competitive moves and countermoves escalate with such ferocity today that the traditional sources of competitive advantage can no longer be sustained. To compete in this dynamic environment, D'Aveni argues that a company must fundamentally shift its strategic focus. He constructs a brilliant operational model that shows how firms move up "escalation ladders" as advantage is continually created, eroded, destroyed, and recreated through strategic maneuvering in four arenas of competition. Using this "Four Arena" analysis, D'Aveni explains how competitors engage in a struggle for control by seeking leadership in the arenas of "price and quality," "timing and know-how," "stronghold creation/invasion," and "deep pockets." Winners set the pace in each of these four competitive battlegrounds.Using hundreds of detailed examples from hypercompetitive industries such as computers, software, automobiles, airlines, pharmaceuticals, toys and soft drinks, D'Avenie demonstrates how hypercompetitive firms succeed in dynamic markets by disrupting the status quo and creating a continuous series of temporary advantages. They seize the initiative, D'Aveni explains, by employing a set of strategies he calls the "New 7-S's" Superior Stakeholder Satisfaction, Strategic Soothsaying, Speed, Surprise, Shifting the Rules of Competition, Signaling Strategic Intent, and Simultaneous and Sequential Thrusts. Paradoxically, firms must destroy their competitive advantages to gain advantage, D'Aveni shows. Long-term success depends not on sustaining an advantage through a static, long-term strategy, but instead on formulating a dynamic strategy for the creating, destruction, and recreation of short-term advantages. America must embrace the new reality of hypercompetition, D'Aveni concludes in a compelling analysis of the potential chilling effect of American antitrust laws on competitiveness. This masterful book, essentially an operating manual of strategy and tactics for a new era, will be required reading for managers, planners, consultants, academics, and students of hypercompetitive industries.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
LET"S COME UP WITH AN IMPRESSIVE TITLE TO OVERCOME TRITENESS  2003-05-14
Did you ever wonder how these guys sit around and come up with a title that will make them feel good when they are introduced at a dinner of pinhead academics? "Good evening, please let me introduce you to John Doe, author of Managing the Dynamics of ever-changing paradigms in cross-functional systemic horseshoes." WOW! This guy must be smart!I only got about 2/3 thru this book before I gave up. Every time I turned a page I felt myself saying, "Yeah, right!". If it is possible to be trite and nauseatingly academic at the same time, this book does a magnificent job of accomplishing both.
First clear definition of modern competition  2000-05-28
D'Aveni manages to convey and explain the current competitive environment. Why nobody has defined it so easily before, I don't understand (everything is simple after you've had it explained to you). The great thing about D'Aveni, is that he in principle challenges the Porter's and Ansoff's of this world, and explains that competition today is intense, not very well-ordered and competitive advantages is fleeting and has to be constantly renewed. In short, this is the first book in Strategy that I've read and immediately felt at home with. You can't loose, buy it, read it and contemplate it. If you don't agree with its main theme, you're probably of a dying breed of managers, otherwise you need this book to make sense of the competitive landscape of today.
Must have. 1999-10-22
The strategy challenge is "to know all gurus, but to follow none". You need to resolve your own strategy paradoxes by creatively combining aspects from different approches. There is no one best way to make strategy. However, D'Aveni offers training manual for managers to formulate the desired strategy. Excellent. MUST HAVE.
Hypercompetition has proven to be a highly useful text. 1998-11-03
Contrary to some of the more pedantic opionions noted here, Richard D'Aveni's book on Hypercometition has proven to be highly useful in our strategic planning process. While it is true that one may adapt Porter's traditional approaches, Hypercompetition stimulates more focused thought on the competition - who they are, how you can take them out, etc. Deliberately planning to confront, outwit, and defeat your opponent has been decidedly lacking in modern business lore as of late - the current Microsoft case not withstanding. Hypercompetition may not be the sole game in town, but it gives everyone else a run for their money.
A Case of Hyperrepetition  1998-05-23
Although this book offers a useful compilation of tools, they are hardly original. D'Aveni simply draws--if not plagiarizes--most of his insights from many other books and cases on strategy that have been out there for decades. Many of the passages in D'Aveni's book seem to have been copied from Michael Porter's infamous triology on Competitive Strategy. For example, when D'Aveni lists the strongholds that a company can establish, he lists the very same Entry Barriers that Michael Porter listed in his book over a decade ago. Furthermore, most of the examples that are listed in the book are examples of companies that D'Aveni found in HBS cases--and not his own original case studies. D'Aveni argues in his book that the environment in which companies compete has transformed into a hypercompetitive environment that breaks all the traditional rules of competition. This hypercompetitive environment has made it more difficult for companies to compete in the marketplace. He also argues that traditional frameworks (e.g., Porter's 5 Forces) of analysis are inadequate and that he has developed a new revolutionary set of analytical tools. However, there are two major flaws in D'Aveni's reasoning: 1. The nature of competition has always been this way. Granted, companies have become more sophisticated and faster when it comes to implementation, but this is simply an evolution and not a revolution. 2. Traditional tools of analysis are not static instruments that only look at a static competitive environment. They are only static, if you use them in such a way, e.g., Porter's 5 forces analysis can be used to evaluate multi-period competitive responses... Finally, D'Aveni tries to develop his own analytical framework, which he calls the new 7 S's. But D'Aveni needs to do more than just try to associate his model with McKinsey's old 7 S's model. Although some of his S's are useful, most of his model (e.g., "strategic soothsaying") is not very intuitive or useful for critical analysis of an indust! ry. In conclusion, D'Aveni's book disappoints because it offers seldomly original insights. If you are looking for more "revolutionary" material consider "Value Migration", "The Profit Zone", Michael Porter's trilogy, Jefferey Ellis' classical treay, or Jean-Pierre Jeannet's book on Global Strategies.
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