Review
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Daniel Ek, CEO and Co-Founder of Spotify Hamilton Helmer is the best kind of big thinker - he offers great
ins that you can turn into real world action. At Spotify the 7 Powers are widely used as we discuss new
initiatives. His distillation of the key types of strategic power, how to find them, how to leverage them, and how to
maintain them is a fantastic toolset for companies at every stage Reed Hastings, CEO and Co-Founder of Netflix The
forces of competition are just incredibly strong. Everyone is trying to eat your lunch, and if you don't read 7 Powers
you're going to die a lot sooner. Jonathan Levin, Philip H Knight Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business 7 Powers
lays out a clear, compelling and inful framework for thinking about the persistent sources of competitive
advantage. Helmer draws on three decades of experience to break down how companies establish power and shape their
industries, illustrating at every turn with entertaining and illuminating examples. Peter Thiel, entrepreneur and
investor Hamilton Helmer understands that strategy starts with invention. He can't tell you what to invent, but he can
and does show what it takes for a new invention to become a valuable business. Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe 7
Powers provides vital guidance for any business person developing strategy. I have known Hamilton for over a decade
since his time as a strategy advisor to Adobe, and I am delighted that he is now sharing his original and compelling
business ins. Pete Docter, Pixar director and two-time Academy Award winner for Up and Inside Out Hamilton is a
deep thinker who makes a compelling connection between passion and good business. His ideas are well thought out, wise,
and often challenging. I always look forward to what he has to say. Mike Moritz, Chairman of Sequoia Capital Making a
small number of decisions wisely is far more important than making a lot of decisions correctly. Hamilton Helmer
explains exactly how the leaders of the world's most successful businesses get that small number just right. Patrick
Collison, CEO and Co-Founder of Stripe Silicon Valley correctly places enormous value on execution and on culture.
However, I think this sometimes leads to insufficient importance being placed on strategy. Hamilton Helmer's deeply
incisive work will hopefully help correct that. Blake Grossman, former CEO of Barclays Global Investors 7 Powers is a
highly innovative approach to understanding some of the key underlying drivers of company value and capturing ideas that
certainly are not very well understood in the markets. And the result has been one of the most exceptional and sustained
alpha records I've ever seen. Daphne Koller, President and Co-Founder of Coursera This book is a must-read for anyone
starting or growing a business. It lays out an elegant and inful framework that really helped inspire my thinking
about building and maintaining strategic advantage in a competitive landscape. Mark Baumgartner, Chief Investment
Officer, Institute for Advanced Study A master in the discipline of strategy, Hamilton has condensed 40 years of thought
and practice into a single readable book. Read it and to your benefit you will see the 7 Powers everywhere you look.
Greg Hinckley, President, Mentor Graphics Corporation Mentor has benefited from a continuing consulting relationship
with Hamilton for the better part of 20 years and has incorporated many of his ideas and principles into the core of our
strategy. 7 Powers consolidates those ideas and principles into a powerful framework and vocabulary to describe and
permit analysis of where a company stands in its competitive space. It's a powerful work.
About the Author
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Hamilton Helmer has spent his career as a practicing business strategist. At Helmer & Associates (later Deep
Strategy), a strategy consulting firm he founded, he has led over 200 strategy projects with major clients such as Adobe
Systems, Agilent Technologies, Coursera, Hewlett-Packard, John Hancock Mutual Life, Mentor Graphics, Netflix, Raychem,
and Spotify. Over the last two decades he has also utilized his Strategy concepts as an active equity investor and is
currently Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder of Strategy Capital. Prior to Helmer & Associates he was employed at
Bain & Company. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Williams College.
Mr. Helmer was Board Chair of American Science and Engineering (NASDAQ: ASEI) and currently teaches Business Strategy in
the Economics Department of Stanford University.