Recognizing the Need for Change
Pick the company of your choice
Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and author of the article, “Transient Advantage,” discusses several traps that can blind a company to the need for imminent changes to their strategy to preserve competitive advantage.
These traps, discussed in the second half of the article, include: the first-mover trap, the superiority trap, the quality trap, the hostage-resources trap, the white space trap, the empire-building trap, and the sporadic-innovation trap.
Locate and post a link to an article in The Wall Street Journal, or another reputable source, about a company that fell victim to one or more of these traps.
Identify the trap(s) and discuss why you believe the company’s management missed the warning signs.
What were the impacts that resulted from falling for the trap(s)?
Drawing on the guidance offered by Sherman in Chapter 6, what could they have done differently to avoid the trap(s)?
