No general wants to fight an enemy on a level battlefield because the outcome will likely be an indeterminant stalemate (e.g., the four years of trench warfare in WW1). Without an asymmetric edge, organizations should also avoid level playing grounds. Otherwise, they will likely find themselves in the trenches of a price war.
Using a framework that identifies six types of capital, we tabulate different forms of capital asymmetry an organization can strive to create to reduce the influence of competitors.
Major strategic shifts in the automotive industry from Ford to BYD are used to illustrate the disruptive impact of capital asymmetry. A tool to help organizations record their current and desired level of capital asymmetry will be introduced.
Thinking in terms of capital asymmetry is a new lens for strategic planning derived from the observation that organizations have competed for thousands of years by creating superior capital.
Bio
Richard (Rick) Watson is the Research Director of Digital Frontier Partners and Regents Professor and J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy Emeritus of the University of Georgia. He is a former President of the Association for Information Systems and was awarded its highest honour, a LEO, for his achievements in information systems.
Professor Watson has published over 200 journal articles and written books on electronic commerce, data management, and energy informatics. His most recent book is Capital, Systems, and Objects. His work has been accepted by leading academic and practitioner journals and translated into several languages.
Dr. Watson has given over 300 invited presentations to practitioners and academics in more than 30 countries, including conference keynotes on six continents. He is on the editorial board of Energy Informatics and the Sustainability Senior Editor for MISQ Executive.
