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George Stalk, a renowned strategist and senior partner of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), believes that the best executives are constantly looking for new ways to identify and seize strategic advantage.

They study winners in other industries for ideas that can be transplanted to their industry. They sniff out anomalies to understand the implications for their business.

They are adept at sensing faint signals on the horizon, assessing their relevance, and transforming these insights into decisive actions.

In his latest book, Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now, Stalk opens his personal files of weak - and once weak - signals and shares his views of five key strategies that will be game changers in the coming years.

Along the way he offers keen insights into how to turn each of these strategies into competitive advantage.

Supply chain gymnastics

Outsourcing, subcontracting, partnering, offshoring, and bestshoring from Asia have lowered costs, improved profits, and helped many companies build market share.

A looming logjam, however, presents a critical challenge to their continuing success.

The growth of port, freight-handling, and highway infrastructures in North America and Western Europe is not keeping up with demand.

Unmanaged, this situation will lead to massive supply chain disruptions, idle factories, stockouts, overstocks, and lost profit upsetting the attractiveness of sourcing from Asia.

Stalk suggests creative ways for forward-thinking executives to transform this problem into a major opportunity.

Sidestepping economies of scale

The "disposable factory" is labour-intensive, capital-light, and offers high throughput at low cost.

It has been an engine of growth for many developing-economy competitors.

The same principles may offer a way for more traditional players to address the uncertainty inherent in today's shorter product and business model lifecycles.

In fast-changing environments, any number of a business's elements may prove disposable, including organisational structures, management teams, distribution channels, and even strategies.

Stalk explores ways in which incumbent companies can take a page from the books of emerging-market upstarts.

Dynamic pricing

Can you charge more for a cold drink when the weather gets warmer? Will a driver pay a higher toll to avoid the heaviest traffic?

In many sectors, it is now possible to maximise profits by matching pricing to real-time demand.

First movers can gain a critical information advantage that's hard to neutralise.

Stalk discusses the cases of two insurance companies and how they use dynamic pricing to create competitive advantage.

Embracing complexity

Complexity does not need to be a bad thing. Yes, it can add costs, but when it gives you the edge with the most profitable customers, the return can be enormous.

Smart companies have demonstrated ways to turn complexity into a competitive advantage with a range of interesting strategies including: enticing the heavy spender, reducing complexity anxiety, specifying the best choice, and simplifying search.

Stalk demonstrates how this counterintuitive strategy can be put into action, drawing on examples from Dell, Zappos, and Grainger, among others.

Infinite bandwidth

The day is coming when bandwidth will no longer be a constraint and businesses will have instantaneous access to any information they need, anywhere they need it, in any form required, at essentially zero cost.

It is not too early for companies to position themselves to seize the advantage this represents for enhanced operational efficiency, new business models, and as-yet unimagined businesses.

Stalk reveals how leading companies like Coca-Cola and General Electric are exploring ways to turbo-charge their businesses with increased bandwidth.

Staying ahead of the curve also requires top management to learn how to spot opportunities and anomalies on their own.

Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now shares Stalk's use of "open files" to keep track of interesting - and potentially disruptive - developments.

Five Future Strategies You Need Right Now is published by Harvard Business Press (ISBN: 978-1-4221-2126-9).

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Related links

• The Boston Consulting Group