Invest Like The Best
Episode 174 Power + Business
Invest Like The Best

Episode 174: Power + Business

Invest Like The Best

Episode 174

Power + Business

Hamilton is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Strategy Capital, as well as the author of 7 Powers, one of the best business books in history. We cover all 7 Powers, the best real-world examples of them, and how companies earn and keep those Powers over time.

[00:01:31] – (First question) â€“ What Power means to Hamilton

[00:05:05] – Benefits being more common than barriers in the Power equation

[00:06:28] – How early stage companies develop their barriers

[00:11:23] – The power of Counter-Positioning and how he’s seen it applied

[00:14:47] – The product side of Counter-Positioning

[00:16:39] – Daniel Ek Podcast episode

[00:17:27] – Applying the idea of Counter-Positioning to yourself

[00:20:40] – A Cornered Resource

[00:23:49] – A look at google as a Cornered Resource

[00:27:12] – Unique power of Network Economies

[00:31:18] – What subtleties disqualifies network effects

[00:32:54] – Nuances of Scale Economies

[00:35:56] – Learning economies and who can scale it better

[00:37:07] – Building a Switching Cost and barrier into your business

[00:40:10] – Branding as Power

[00:44:27] – Defining Process Power and how it differs from Scale Economies

[00:46:40] – The notion of the time-lag and cash flow

[00:50:42] – Why is so much Power concentrated in technology businesses

[00:52:07] – What does Power mean for customers

[00:53:43] – Developing Power as an art vs science and the best Power artists

[00:55:08] – Kindest thing anyone has done for him

Power + Business

Introduction

Patrick
My guest today is Hamilton Helmer, the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Strategy Capital and the author of one of the best business books in history called 7 Powers, which is the topic of our conversation. He has spent his career as a practicing business strategist, advising companies, investing based on strategy insights, and teaching strategy. In the last three decades, he has also utilized his strategy concepts as a public equity investor. In this conversation, we cover all seven business Powers from Counter-Positioning to Scale Economies and how companies earn and keep those Powers. Any investor or business person should understand these concepts. And 7 Powers is the best work I've seen that explains them in depth. Please enjoy our conversation.

Benefits, Barriers, and Power

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