For sustained digital advantage, find a huge customer problem and create the processes that will solve it

Abstract

Purpose New technologies may offer special opportunities for others to achieve very large returns with approaches to technology development like those of Amazon, Tesla, and Walmart. This paper summarizes those firms' overall approach and offers guidelines for carrying out similar efforts. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a multi-firm case study, examining long-term technology development processes of Amazon, Tesla, Walmart, Varian Medical, and Deere. Findings The firms were able to create huge amounts of value (or in Deere's case, seems to be creating a huge amount of value today) because their leaders recognized a huge problem that limited customers greatly and spent decades solving it with digital technology. The approach appears to be replicable by others. Research limitations/implications This is an initial review. Further study of these firms and others that have similar long-term digital achievements is warranted. Practical implications The paper describes a practical approach to achieving sustained competitive advantage that may be effective for those willing to pursue solution to a large problem over many years. Originality/value The most successful users of digital technology have followed a difficult but straightforward path to revolutionizing customer experience: Focus for decades on making something important work really well. This paper identifies similarities among the long-term strategies of the greatest producers of long-term value for the first time and identifies a path through which others may follow them.