Digital technologies are pushing decision-making ability to the edges of the organization, allowing businesses to adopt structures that are flatter and more reconfigurable than those they have traditionally used. When AI and other software make information transparent to all authorized decision-makers on the front lines, directly and without managerial filters, it unleashes their creative and collaborative potential instead of trapping them in endless reporting and coordination loops. It can help to create, in other words, a "permissionless corporation." The authors contend that companies with three or four layers, faster problem-solving, and a permissionless mindset will outcompete traditional players. But making the transformation to such a structure will require companies to completely rethink how people work; it's not enough to streamline a process here or there or take out one layer of traditional structure. Using real-world examples, the authors detail how companies need to pay painstaking attention to performance metrics, ensure that information gets to the front line, communicate the context in which decisions are made, and leverage multifunctional teams.

The huge threat posed by digital technologies and models throws many established companies into a panic. In response, they often make big, bet-the-farm moves that fail badly. It's much wiser to take an incremental approach to digital transformation, say McGrath and McManus. Building on a technique McGrath helped develop in the 1990s--discovery-driven planning--the two advise executives at traditional firms to take things step-by-step. Rather than attempting an all-or-nothing pivot, incumbents should exploit their greater resources and knowledge and explore a variety of ideas at once. By continually finding ways to fix problems with digital technology, testing and refining assumptions about what works, getting new information, and minimizing risks, they can learn their way gradually toward an effective digital response. Consider Best Buy's strategy for striking back at Amazon. Best Buy overhauled its processes so that it could cut costs and match prices; turned its stores into an asset by allowing online orders to be picked up there (avoiding delivery headaches); charged brands fees to be in ministores within its outlets; and built a staff of tech consultants who strengthened customer relationships.

The high degree of change in today's environment demands that organizations adapt their strategy to new situations much more frequently than ever before. Yet in a world of 'transient advantage', too many companies are obsessed with traditional industry analysis and continue to define their most important competitors as the other companies within their industry. In a wide-ranging interview, the author shows that this is a very dangerous way to think about competition right now. In more and more markets, we are seeing industries competing with other industries, business models competing with other business models - even within the same industry - and entirely new categories emerging. She describes the new mindset required to thrive in an age of transient advantage, explaining the roles of 'continuous reconfiguration', healthy disengagement and more.