The Delta Project

The Delta Project provides a new organizing framework to develop strategy and manage in the new economy. The rules for success have changed as a result of globalization, deregulation, market fragmentation, the emergence of the Internet infrastructure and the wholesale digitization of information.

New business models and business strategy are required to secure and sustain competitive position. Hax and Wilde identify three distinct strategic positions that can be used to realign the direction of your business. Introducing new models of 'bonding', 'complementors' and 'customer lock-in' this book provides a fundamental shift in the way that we think about competitive positioning and is destined to influence the way that companies will solve these questions.

• Prologue
• Chapter 1: The Delta Model: The End of Conventional Wisdom
• Bonding: The Driving Force in Strategy
• How We Organized the Book
• Chapter 2: The Triangle: Strategy Based upon Bonding
• Expanding the Strategic Options
• The Triangle: Three Distinctive Strategic Options
• The Bonding Continuum; The Various Degrees of Product, Customer, and System Bonding
• Bonding and the Triangle
• Reinterpreting Porter's Five Forces Model through the Delta Model
• Reflections
• Chapter 3: The Best Product: Winning through Costs and Features
• Achieving Best Product Positioning through Low Cost
• Achieving Best Product Positioning through Differentiation
• Reflections
• Chapter 4: Total Customer Solutions: Winning through Relationships
• Achieving Total Customer Solutions by Redefining Customer Experience
• How to Redefine the Customer Experience
• Other Illustrations of Redefining Customer Experience
• Achieving Total Customer Solutions through Horizontal Breadth
• Achieving Total Customer Solutions through Customer Integration
• Reflections
• Chapter 5: System Lock-In: Winning through Complementors
• Achieving System Lock-In through Proprietary Standards
• Achieving System Lock-In through Dominant Exchange
• Achieving System Lock-In through Restricted Access
• Using Direct Channels to Achieve System Lock-In and Total Customer Solutions — The Case of Unilever in India and Mexico
• Reflections
• Chapter 6: Creating a Strategic Agenda: The Case of Motorola Semiconductor
• The Delta Model in Practice: The Semiconductor Product Sector of Motorola
• Chapter 7: Execution is not the Problem: Aligning Execution with Strategy Is!
• The Adaptive Processes: Linking Strategy with Execution
• The Alignment of Adaptive Processes with the Chosen Strategic Position
• The Role of Operational Effectiveness as an Adaptive Process
• The Role of Customer Targeting as an Adaptive Process
• The Role of Innovation as an Adaptive Process
• Arriving at a Strategic Position: Critical Success Factors
• Prioritizing the Adaptive Processes
• Reflections
• Chapter 8: Delta.com: Reinterpreting the Internet Industry
• Content
• E-commerce
• One Vertical Market: Multiple Strategies
• Network Infrastructure
• Incumbent Strategies
• Reflections
• Chapter 9: Measuring Success: Aligning Strategy, Processes and Metrics
• Some Reflections on Metrics
• Metrics and the Delta Model
• The vPOST Business and Cause-Effect Diagram
• Reflections
• Chapter 10: Managing by Averages Led to Below Average Performance: The Need for Granular Metrics
• The Delta Model and Granular Metrics
• Cost De-averaging: Using Granular Metrics to Drive Performance
• Customer Targeting: The Example of Capital One
• Reflections
• Chapter 11: The Restructuring of the Electric Utility Industry: Applying the Delta Model to an Industry
• Deregulation in the Electric Utility Industry
• Difficulties in the Deregulation Process
• Parallels with the Computer Industry
• The Effect of Deregulation in Electric Utilities
• The Generation Companies
• The Transmission Companies
• The Distribution Companies
• The Service Companies
• Power Brokering
• The Strategic Positioning of the Horizontal Segments
• The Role of the Adaptive Processes in the Horizontal Segments
• Performance Metrics in the Horizontal Segments
• Creating a Strategic Agenda
• Granular Metrics
• Reflections
• Chapter 12: Toward a Unified Framework of Strategy
• Porter's Competitive Positioning Framework
• The Resource-Based View of the Firm
• The Delta Model: An integrated Framework for Strategy

I've read this book three times now, looking for some reason to keep it, but finding none. What is said in here, has been said by others before (and usually better as well). And having bad examples (I mean, Enron?) and being too verbose doesn't help the authors.

This is a hyped book that failed to come near its potential. As it is today, it will rest in the bookshelf, for the next generation…