Consumers have Greater product variety than ever, yet they are less satisfied. Top management has more strategic options, yet they deliver less value. What do these paradoxes suggest about the future of competition? C. K. Prahalad, coauthor of the landmark bestseller Competing for the Future, and Venkat Ramaswamy argue that we are on the cusp of a very different world-one in which the distinct roles of firm and consumer converge and the sources of value creation change dramatically. Prahalad and Ramaswamy show that the traditional, firm-centric view of value creation is being challenged by active, connected, and informed consumers-coupled with the mingling of technologies and industries. No longer does value lie in products and services created by firms and delivered to customers. Increasingly, say the authors, value is being jointly created by the consumer and the company.

Based on a wide range of ongoing experimentation in co-creation across many industries, The Future of Competition presents a new approach to value creation. In this framework, consumer-company interactions and personalized co-creation experiences-enabled by technical and social infrastructures-allow each consumer to co-create unique value with a network of companies and consumer communities. Using vivid examples of companies that are discovering next practices, Prahalad and Ramaswamy discuss the key building blocks of co-creation-dialogue, access, risk assessment, and transparency (DART)-and explore how new experience technologies and social capabilities can enable robust experience environments. To compete effectively, CEOs and senior managers must focus on building new strategic capital. This involves enabling managers to enhance their effectiveness by experiencing the business as consumers do, creating new knowledge rapidly, managing experience quality, selectively accessing competence on demand, flexibly and rapidly reconfiguring resources, and collaborating to co-create value through experience networks. This book sets the agenda for top management for co-creating the future, by revealing unprecedented opportunities for value creation and innovation.