There is no silver bullet in doing business. Not 100% agree with this article, but it's worthy to take a look and rethink how we define "corporate strategy." What the author mentioned in this article are not new insights at all -- five forces model is simply a static generalization of status quo of external environment and a zero-sum competition concept against real business logic. That’s why when doing business analysis a simple SWOT analysis can always help understanding the external environment, as well as how the company could utilize its resources and core competencies to win in its business. To be honest, I have no idea how monitor went bankruptcy at the end, but I believe it’s not all because of the five forces model. I wouldn't say the five forces model is not useful at all. It’s just an analytic tool, which is simple and effective when observing status quo. Just like financial statements. Investors may not be able to get any excess profits simply by reading financial statements which simply summarize the past performance of companies, but it’s always important to understand “what happened” to the company. On the other hand, although product innovation is important, it’s not silver bullet either. Product innovations are usually not that successful except those in some extraordinary companies such as Apple. Meanwhile, a company has to overcome its institutionalization and bureaucracy when it’s getting larger. In short, it would be very difficult for a company to keep its momentum on promoting disruptive innovation during its lifespan. Business is complicated. There is no silver bullet. However, I believe that observation and plan are as important as execution and innovation. Period. --

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