The Tech Strategy Podcast

Latest Episodes:

My Playbook for Digital Growth (259) Aug 31, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about digital growth, which is really a process. It's a weekly grind to capture incremental growth as well and new waves.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

Much of this thinking is by Chris Zook and Bain’s strategy practice. I am citing these books:

Here is my favorite summary quote.

Here's a quick summary of core vs. adjacency.

Most all sustainable growth is based on 1-2 strong cores.

A profitable core is centered on the strongest position in terms of loyal customers, competitive advantage, unique skills, and ability to earn profits.

Growth adjacencies include:

New customer segments:
- Micro-segmentation of current segments
- Unpenetrated segments
- New segments
New geographies
- Global expansion
- Local expansion
New channels
- Internet
- Distribution
- Indirect
New products
- New to world
- Complements
- Support services
- Next generation
- Just new products / services
New Businesses
- New to world needs
- New substitutes
- New models
- Capability adjacencies
New value chain steps
- Forward integration
- Backwards integration
- Sell capability to outside

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I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to accelerate growth with improving customer experiences (CX) and digital moats.

I am a partner at TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in how to increase growth with improved customer experiences (CX), personalization and other types of customer value. Get in touch here.

I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.

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Cainiao's Big Growth Despite an Uncertain Strategy. An Example of Alibaba’s Management Playbook. (256) Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about Cainiao's rapid rise from 2014-2022. Despite having a pretty unclear strategy. It's another example of Alibaba's Management Playbook.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

Here is the case study from CEO Wan Lin.

Wan Lin: My Practice On Strategy

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I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to accelerate growth with improving customer experiences (CX) and digital moats.

I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

Understanding Pinduoduo and Search vs. Engagement-Focused Ecommerce (255) Jul 27, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about search-focused vs. interaction / engagement focused ecommerce. And a lot about Pinduoduo.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

Interaction / engagement-focused product has three dimensions:

Recommendations. This is passive consumption, not active searching. So that means machine learning-powered newsfeeds. Basically, just like TikTok and Instagram.
Entertainment. That means features, games, and videos.
Community. This is about tapping into group behavior. You want active communication and sharing between users. And on social networks. You also want livestreaming with friends. And, if possible, you want group buying.

I think there are two archetypes for interaction-focused ecommerce.

Type 1: Newsfeed based. That’s TikTok. That’s the sushi train restaurants. This is TikTok Shop is a good example of this. With lots of little purchases. Mostly based on whose videos you like to watch and what surprises show up in your feed.
Type 2: Carnival based. That’s early PDD. It’s lots of games. Which is very different than TikTok Shop.

Alibaba has three interesting use cases for ecommerce.

The Power of Livestreaming in Ecommerce
Image-Based Search Changes the Way We Find Products
Conversational Search

Photo by Hugh Han on Unsplash

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I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to accelerate growth with improving customer experiences (CX) and digital moats.

I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

3 Lessons from My Visit to Tencent AI Cloud (254) Jul 18, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about my visit to Tencent AI Cloud in Beijing.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

My are my 3 take-aways:

Take-Away 1: Tencent Cloud is Doing “Fast-Follower with Advantages” in AI.
WeChat and Tencent Cloud Are Going International Leading with Tech Services.
I Expect Tencent Cloud to Be One of the World’s Top 5 AI Cloud Companies.

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I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to accelerate growth with improving customer experiences (CX) and digital moats.

I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

How Alibaba.com Re-Ignited Growth with the Alibaba Management Playbook (253) Jul 07, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about how Alibaba.com restructured its business and re-ignited growth in 2017-2018.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

My summary of the Alibaba Management Playbook:

Diagnose the problem:
- What is the chief complaint?
  - Stagnant growth? Low NPS?
- What is the differential diagnosis?
1-Re-clarify and re-focus customer value. This includes:
- Customer segmentation. Who are you targeting? What are you after (revenue)? Traffic? Data?
- What do they most care about? Map out the process.
- Is what customers want changing? Tech change? PC to mobile changed what maps could do.
- What is the competitor offering and how you are going to take their customers?
2-Launch 2-3 key strategic initiatives to increase refocused customer value.
3-Improve production. Fix the big pain points of customers, staff, suppliers, etc.
- Requires data-driven decision making and iteration.
4-Change the org structure, talent and culture. Improve production relations.
- Increased communication and coordination.
5-Have early wins (small phased victories). Important to test the strategy and get data. And to re-enforce culture and org changes.
6-Agile tactics and speed are key.
- You win chess with 2x the moves.
- Tactical brilliance and guerrilla execution.
7-Build a powerful biz model or operating flywheel. Maybe access multi-growth curves.
Measure Outcomes
- Financial and operational
- Strategic

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I write, speak and consult about how to win (and not lose) in digital strategy and transformation.

I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a boutique consulting firm that helps retailers, brands, and technology companies exploit digital change to grow faster, innovate better and build digital moats. Get in touch here.

My book series Moats and Marathons is one-of-a-kind framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

How Amap Beat Baidu Maps. My Summary of the Alibaba Playbook. (252) Jun 27, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about how Alibaba's Amap quickly dethroned market leader Baidu Maps.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

Here is the Amap case study.

My summary of the Alibaba Management Playbook:

Diagnose the problem:
- Stagnant growth? Negative NPS? Low engagement?
1-Unwavering focus on customer value. Re-clarify customer value. This includes:
- Customer segmentation. Who are you targeting? What are you after (revenue)? Traffic? Data (Amap)?
- What do they most care about? Map out the process.
- Is what customers want changing? Tech change? PC to mobile changed what maps could do.
- What is the competitor offering and how you are going to take their customers?
2-Fix the Big Pain Points. Requires Data-Driven Decision Making and Iteration.
3-Do cultural change and increased communication and coordination.
4-Agile teams and tactics are key. Tactical brilliance and guerrilla execution.
5-Have early wins.
6-Build a powerful biz model or operating flywheel.

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I write, speak and consult about how to win (and not lose) in digital strategy and transformation.

My book series Moats and Marathons is one-of-a-kind framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

5 Things People Get Wrong about Scale Advantages, Economies of Scale and Moats (251) Jun 19, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about scale advantages. Which are different than economies of scale.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

5 Things People Get Wrong about Scale Advantages, Economies of Scale and Moats

There are lots of absolute (not relative) scale advantage. Growth is the default business strategy.
Scale advantages are bigger (and more vague) than economies of scale
Scale advantages can cascade
Scale disadvantages (diseconomies of scale, big company disease) are under-rated and under-measured
You need to separate barriers from competitive advantages. And measure each specifically.

I want to know 3 things:

Barriers to entry against new entrants.
1. What specific CRAS to reproduce?
2. What is the cost, difficulty and timing to enter?
Competitive advantage against rivals
1. Which CAs specifically? With measurements.
The incumbent or rival response

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I write, speak and consult about how to win (and not lose) in digital strategy and transformation.

My book series Moats and Marathons is one-of-a-kind framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

Strategies for Fragmented (and Other Highly Competitive) Industries (250) Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about fragmented industries. And other industry structures that are overly competitive. It summarizes a lot of Michael Porter's writing on this subject.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

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I write, speak and consult about how to win (and not lose) in digital strategy and transformation.

My book series Moats and Marathons is one-of-a-kind framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

3 Take-Aways from My Visit to Tencent (249) Jun 01, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about my visits to Tencent. Which is becoming much more about AI.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

My 3 take-aways:

WeChat Has Way More Functions That I Knew. They Have 26 Years of Experience Messengers.
Tencent Is “All In” on Yuanbao, Hunyuan LLM and AI Cloud.
Merchant and Enterprise Services Are Expanding and Upgrading. Think Microsoft meets OpenAI.

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I write, speak and consult about how to win (and not lose) in digital strategy and transformation.

My book series Moats and Marathons is one-of-a-kind framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Support the show

From Learning and Adaptation to Intelligence (248) May 23, 2025

Show notes

This week’s podcast is about learning and adaptation as a core capability. Which is becoming much more important with AI.

You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.

Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.

Here is the link to our Tech Tours.

6 Levels of Rate of Learning and Adaptation.

Tactics: Such as marketing, inventory and assortment, store layout, pricing, churn
Customer retention, customer segmentation and other more complicated questions.
Adapting current products and services. Such as personalization.
New products and services. And technologies.
Internal processes.
Business models.

4 Rate of Learning and Adaptation Capabilities:

Signal Capability
Experimentation Capability
Organization Capability
System Capability

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I write, speak and consult about how to win (and not lose) in digital strategy and transformation.

My book series Moats and Marathons is one-of-a-kind framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

Note: This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. Investing is risky. Do your own research.

Support the show

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