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Achieving a sustainable competitive edge is nearly impossible these days. A playbookfor strategy in a highvelocity world by Rita Günther McGrath
62 Harvard Business R

ARTWORK Tara Donovan, Untitted (Styrofoam Cups), aoo8, Styrofoam cups •and glue, installation dimensions variable

SPOTLIGHT ON STRATEGY FOR TURBULENT TIMES

Each month we illustrate our Spotlight package with works from an accomplished artist. We hope that the lively, cerebral creations of these photographers, painters, and installation artists will infuse the pages with additional energy and intelligence and amplify what are often complex and abstract concepts. This month we showcase Tara Donovan, a Brooklynbased artist known for her large sculptures and installations. Donovan, whose work is composed of everyday objects like pencils and toothpicks, has explained, "It's all about perceiving this material from a distance and close up and how the light interacts with it." View more of the artist's work at pacegaUery.com.

S R T G IS STUCK. For too long the business world an inflection point. Thefieldof strategy needs to acT AE Y has been obsessed with the notion of building a sus- knowledge what a multitude of practitioners already tainable competitive advantage. That idea is at the know: Sustainable competitive advantage is now the core of most strategy textbooks; it forms the basis exception, not the rule. Transient advantage is the of Warren Buffett's investment strategy; it's central new normal. to the success of companies on the "most admired" lists. I'm not arguing that it's a bad idea—obviously, The Anatomy of a Transient Advantage it's marvelous to compete in a way that others can't Any competitive advantage—whether it lasts two imitate. And even today there are companies that seasons or two decades—goes through the same create a strong position and defend it for extended