Jul 30, 2026 · 48 min · 13 segments
Competitive advantage is becoming much more fluid as market positions shift faster across industries, with advantages eroding and differentiation narrowing. Despite this increased volatility…
Laura LaBergeGuest
Matt BanholzerGuestSean BrownHostThe topic of competitive advantage is by no means new, and I know that you and your colleagues have recently published an article on the erosion of competitive advantage, which we'll include a link to in the episode description.
And so what is it about the current environment that means we need to talk about this right now?
I think rapidly, though, if you talk to different individuals, either in your, in your own company, institution or across them, everyone has a little bit of a different definition of what it is.
You know, everyone has their favorite framework that have, you know, popped up over the last few decades.
But if you think about it, there's really been a whole sea change, as we all know, in the advent of AI and the ability to look through structured and unstructured data, qualitative data, et cetera.
And some of this qualitative data is, you know, where competitive advantage really, you know, can start to come out if you can know where to look.
I think there's been a lot of research in the last ten or twenty years or so on the quantitative side of this, like how does total share of return, you know, correlate to moves you can look on a balance sheet or a P&L statement in terms of capital allocation, cost of goods sold, M&A, et cetera.
But now is the time to actually look at, like, well, what are the root causes upstream of that? What are the things that are going on with the company that change, like, how they work, right? This can be things like some people say culture is an advantage, but what does that really mean? Some people say our intellectual property is an advantage.
What does that look like? And so I think we're going to get into that whole discussion here today.
You know, and also just make sure that, you know, what we talk about is truly data-driven and also does correlate to actual economic profit and outcomes.
Because at the end of the day, you know, what we don't want to do is just make this another exercise that creates yet one more framework.
So that's what we're excited to talk about here today and where we're gonna go.
The topic of competitive advantage is by no means new, and I know that you and your colleagues have recently published an article on the erosion of competitive advantage, which we'll include a link to in the episode description.
And so what is it about the current environment that means we need to talk about this right now?
I think rapidly, though, if you talk to different individuals, either in your, in your own company, institution or across them, everyone has a little bit of a different definition of what it is.
You know, everyone has their favorite framework that have, you know, popped up over the last few decades.
But if you think about it, there's really been a whole sea change, as we all know, in the advent of AI and the ability to look through structured and unstructured data, qualitative data, et cetera.
And some of this qualitative data is, you know, where competitive advantage really, you know, can start to come out if you can know where to look.
I think there's been a lot of research in the last ten or twenty years or so on the quantitative side of this, like how does total share of return, you know, correlate to moves you can look on a balance sheet or a P&L statement in terms of capital allocation, cost of goods sold, M&A, et cetera.
But now is the time to actually look at, like, well, what are the root causes upstream of that? What are the things that are going on with the company that change, like, how they work, right? This can be things like some people say culture is an advantage, but what does that really mean? Some people say our intellectual property is an advantage.
What does that look like? And so I think we're going to get into that whole discussion here today.
You know, and also just make sure that, you know, what we talk about is truly data-driven and also does correlate to actual economic profit and outcomes.
Because at the end of the day, you know, what we don't want to do is just make this another exercise that creates yet one more framework.
So that's what we're excited to talk about here today and where we're gonna go.
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