Jose Cantera

Value Hacking Jose Cantera

Conventional thinking argues that business is a finite game played in stable and well-defined industries where winner companies develop and sustain a competitive advantage over rivals. Lately, even being different, competing and winning is no longer enough. You have to disrupt something. It seams that disruption is the buzzword to define the new mantra of business today, which means taking the ideal of competition to the extreme. In short, the purpose of any company has historically been focused on making money by competing much better than others. But is that the only way of doing business? And is that the wisest way? In my opinion, no. Competition is only half of the picture when it comes to explaining how companies become successful. The other, much more thought-provoking, half occurs when making money is the result and people are the true purpose. It's the other way around, when business is an infinite game based on hugely improving people's lives at a profit. With this idea, the intention of strategy mutates from competition to creation. Value Hacking is a strategic framework that aims primarily at shaping, scaling and dominating your own value game, rather than competing in the game you find. Most successful companies are perpetual mutant organizations that play continuously with game's boundaries and rules. That explains that when the result of the creation is something truly singular and valuable there is no room for replication, copycatting and competition. The next big thing will not be another version Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Tesla, or WeChat. If you are just copying these companies, you are not learning anything from them. But what you can really learn is that everything around you, from the most bright idea to the most beautiful thing, was made by people like you. And you can create new bright ideas to influence people and you can create new beautiful things to delight people. You must create, not compete for what is already created. Life is about creating your own game, not just playing the game you find. Once you realize that, the sky is the limit.