Author Description

HYPER-COMPETITION, 'the modern-day analogue to The Art of War' (Fortune), gave managers no holds barred strategies to create chaos, seize control of their industries, and rout rivals. Now, Richard D'Aveni shows how managers in large and mid-size global companies can defend themselves from these hyper-competitive attacks, squash revolutionary upstarts, and fashion a favourable world for themselves. Throughout history, great powers have built and reshaped their territory, absorbeed or deflected revolutions (most of which fail anyway), and managed their relations with one overriding aim: strategic supremacy. Here, D'Aveni demonstrates how global corporations can do likewise in a hyper-competitive world. They must reconceptualize traditional portfolios into powerful competitive arsenals he calls 'spheres of interest' (like Disney and Microsoft); douse disruptions using counter-revolutionary tactics (Anheuser-Busch bought the microbrew industry); contain competitors of equal size (like NBC did ABD; and master the art of competitive configuration (like Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson).