HBR On Strategy

The Key to Preserving a Long-Term Competitive Advantage

Share this episode
Anyone with this link can open it.
Share Link
Start at 0:00

This episode isn’t summarized yet

Create a free account and summarize it. In a few minutes you’ll have the key takeaways and a section-by-section summary.

Show notes

For more than a century, the pharmaceutical company Roche has been headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It’s one of more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies who have long been based there. Howard Yu, Lego Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD Business School in Switzerland, says that this industrial cluster is a unique example of enduring competitive advantage. In this episode, you'll learn how these historic companies began as makers of chemical dyes and later evolved into microbiology. You’ll also learn how to repackage your company’s existing knowledge to pioneer new products and services. And you’ll learn why persistence and experimentation over the long term are pre-requisites for innovation.

Couldn't load the audio. A blocker may be stopping the show's tracking links. Open the file