article thumbnail

Strategic Choices Need to Be Made Simultaneously, Not Sequentially

Harvard Business Review

That is because no meaningful Where to Play choice exists outside the context of a particular How to Win plan. It turned out that Uber’s How to Win had a lot to do with building a first-mover advantage in markets like the U.S.; In other words, there aren’t inherently strong and weak Where to Play choices.

article thumbnail

Why We Shouldn’t Worry About the Declining Number of Public Companies

Harvard Business Review

Such acquisitions become more lucrative with rising first-mover advantages, pace of technological development, and network externality. Consider Yahoo and Whatsapp, which were acquired by Verizon and Facebook, respectively, in multi-billion-dollar deals.

IPO 10