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Abstract

The next era of competition is at hand. To succeed in an environment of high uncertainty, greater short-term pressure, and tighter resource constraints, companies must become even better and more efficient at developing options for future advantage while continuing to perform in the present. Embracing radical optionality, the authors contend, will allow firms to turn uncertainty from a disruptive threat into a potential source of advantage. Doing so requires upending some of the core tenets of strategy. For instance, they must eliminate the gap between thinking (strategy formation) and doing (execution). They should abandon the winner-takes-all approach, which has long been central to strategy and innovation, and strive instead for flexibility. And they need to achieve 'polydexterity', the ability to exploit existing advantages in current markets while working toward multiple unknown future states. Companies must embrace complexity, learn to search and execute on ideas simultaneously, and engage with customers on their personal journeys. Accomplishing that will require new organizational forms and work practices, deeper integration between humans and technology, and next-generation performance metrics.

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Abstract

The next era of competition is at hand. To succeed in an environment of high uncertainty, greater short-term pressure, and tighter resource constraints, companies must become even better and more efficient at developing options for future advantage while continuing to perform in the present. Embracing radical optionality, the authors contend, will allow firms to turn uncertainty from a disruptive threat into a potential source of advantage. Doing so requires upending some of the core tenets of strategy. For instance, they must eliminate the gap between thinking (strategy formation) and doing (execution). They should abandon the winner-takes-all approach, which has long been central to strategy and innovation, and strive instead for flexibility. And they need to achieve 'polydexterity', the ability to exploit existing advantages in current markets while working toward multiple unknown future states. Companies must embrace complexity, learn to search and execute on ideas simultaneously, and engage with customers on their personal journeys. Accomplishing that will require new organizational forms and work practices, deeper integration between humans and technology, and next-generation performance metrics.

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