Value chains, pogo sticks and competitive edge

A pogo stick puts spring in your heels. It takes you hip‐hop‐hopping past the foot trekkers. Information technology (IT) is the executive's pogo stick: with it you skip ahead of your rivals and leave the competition for dead. Would that life were so simple … that one‐upmanship were so easily achieved. The copywriters' inflated rhetoric promises a great deal. When you buy system XYZ you are also getting in‐built competitive advantage. White rabbits out of hats. Sometimes there is no rabbit; sometimes it's not white; sometimes it's a mutant; sometimes there's no rabbit, just a lot of droppings. But the copywriters ignore reality. Gaining and sustaining competitive edge may not be as easy as ABC, but it's no more difficult than bouncing along on a pogo stick. Just make your cheque payable to XYZ Inc…