How did Capital One and Uber implement nearly identical business models, focusing on customers that are most profitable to serve? Why are Google and Amazon so valuable to us? Why are Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon so difficult for competitors to displace? And why can Google charge almost anything it wants for keywords, since no form of competition will force prices down? The information-based business models of these companies, and many more, are exploiting the patterns described in this book.

This book instills pattern-based thinking that will prepare all readers for greater success in our rapidly changing world. It will help executives, regulators, investors, and concerned citizens better navigate their way through the digital transformation of everything.

Professor Clemons presents six patterns for staying competitive and achieving profitable business models. The author'sreframe-recognize-respond framework teaches readers how to transform unfamiliar problems into familiar patterns, how to determine which patterns to apply in different situations, and how to respond most effectively.

Eric K. Clemons is Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. For thirty years he served as the Founder and Project Director for the  School's Sponsored Research Project on Information: Strategy and Economics. He worked with C-suite officers from organizations like Merrill Lynch, Marriott Hotels, Lever Brothers, and Continental Airlines, to develop research that advanced their daily decision making.  His experience includes analyzing bet-the-farm decisions with individuals as varied as the Chairmen of the New York Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange and the Chief of Naval Operations, to the president and chief operating officer of a rapidly growing craft brewer.  He is a pioneer in the digital transformation of business strategy. 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: You get control when you recognize the patterns

Section 1.3          Developing the Theory of Newly Vulnerable Markets

Section 1.4           The Complete Theory of Newly Vulnerable Markets