Modularity and integration happens throughout the value chain, and is the key to providing a superior user experience and extracting profits.
The Anti-Amazon Alliance
Google Shopping is changing its model, suggesting Google is joining the Anti-Amazon Alliance; 3rd-party merchants should do the same.
Email Addresses and Razor Blades
The fate of Harry’s and other DTC companies, particularly relative to companies like Credit Karma, highlight how the Internet elevates the importance of demand over supply.
Integration and Monopoly
Apple has won through integration, but integration combined with network effects and economies of scale can result in bad outcomes that look a lot like monopolies.
The Value Chain Constraint
Companies succeed or fail not based on technology but rather according to their ability to integrate within their value chains.
Intel and the Danger of Integration
Intel is in an increasingly bad position in part because it has been captive to its integrated model. Or, you could simply say they were disrupted.
Netflix and the Conservation of Attractive Profits
Netflix has a lot more in common with Uber and Airbnb than you might think: it all comes back to the Law of Conservation of Attractive Profits, a core principle of disruption.