Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks when you make the switch!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Make the switch
Gift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingUnlocking the Customer Value Chain
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreSummary
Based on six years of research, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira shows how and why industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do to respond--as well as what potential startups must master if they hope to gain a competitive edge.
As it turns out, there is a pattern to disruption in an industry, whether the disruptor is Uber, Airbnb, or a dozen other startups that have shaken up incumbents and threatened the status quo.
For disruptors to pose a threat to an industry, they have to successfully break the link in choosing, purchasing, or consuming a product or service. Upstarts, Teixeira shows, do not attempt to compete with or overtake a reigning incumbent company entirely. Instead, they work to peel away a portion of the consumer decision-making process, the way Birchbox offered women a new way to sample new beauty products from a variety of cosmetics and fragrance companies, without having to go to the Revlon or Estee Lauder store. Zipcar doesn't attempt to compete head to head with GM but rather to offer people who need transportation an alternative way to get around, without owning a car themselves, or being responsible for fuel, maintenance, or insurance.
In a penetrating narrative filled with case studies and stories, Teixeira shows us how startups successfully disrupt industries--and what industry leaders must do to avoid being disrupted and protect their domain.
Includes a bonus PDF of figures and tables
Reviews
“Thales Teixeira brings a brilliant and incisive intellect—blending fundamental insights with practical guidance—to the urgent question of digital transformation. In Unlocking the Customer Value Chain, he gives us a roadmap for winning the right customers, and for keeping them, amidst the vast wreckage of destroyed business models. Fresh, smart, and strategic—a worthy read!”-Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, co-author of Built to Last
"Digital Disruption has been greatly misunderstood. In Unlocking the Customer Value Chain, Thales Teixeira demystifies some of the misconceptions and, more importantly, creates a generalized framework for executives in virtually any industry to understand and respond to disruptors using a customer-centric approach."
-John Quelch, Dean of the Miami Business School and Leonard M. Miller University Professor and Vice Provost, University of Miami
"No company can succeed today without being customer-centric—agile enough to recognize the weak signals that customers’ expectations are evolving, often in a non-linear fashion and adapt to them. Thales Teixeira provides a fresh perspective and framework for making tough choices about how to compete in today’s competitive environment of digital disruptive."
-Professor Linda A. Hill, Harvard Business School, co-author of Collective Genius
“Very practical insights into understanding a customer-centric, not a company-centric, view of the experiences and the expectations of consumers who are shopping today. Professor Thales Teixeira brings simplicity and robust research to these concepts – a must read for marketers.”
-Brigitte H. King, Chief Consumer Officer, L’Oréal Americas
“HBS professor Thales Teixeira shows how startups upend the ways in which people shop and buy. The great news is that it is all predictable. In Unlocking the Customer Value Chain, he offers a clear roadmap to understand how digital disruption takes place — and what companies can do to hold onto their valued customers.”
-Niraj Shah, co-founder and CEO of Wayfair
“Necessary reading for all of us being disrupted and hoping to become challengers again.”
-Jorge Paulo Lemann, co-founder of 3G Capital
“Teixeira addresses a critical and often overlooked point: Disruption is all about making the consumer’s life easier. Technology is only a means to that end.”
-Jan Bayer, President of News Media and Executive Board member of Axel Springer
"Disruption need not be fearsome for truly customer centric incumbents, who understand and can effectively mitigate pain points on customers’ value chains. Disruptors who attack incumbents' blind spots or ineptness in addressing clients' pain points can quickly decouple and gain market share. Prof. Thales Teixeira's new book is essential reading for both alert incumbents and aspiring disruptors."
-Raymond Ch'ien, Chairman of Hang Seng Bank Expand reviews