When, in December 2022, the Chinese carmaker BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric cars the news resounded round the world like thunder in a clear sky. The performance was coupled with price cuts of almost 20% that Tesla had to concede to stay in the Chinese market.Clearly, not a single company, even those acclaimed as tech stars of the Silicon Valley, seems to be able to stand in the way of Chinese ventures.

The world has changed considerably since the 1980’s but the dominant paradigm in strategy remains Michael Porter’s competitive advantage. In the early 2000’s, Kim & Mauborgne proposed a different perspective with their Blue Ocean strategy but both approaches suffer from the same shortcoming. They both assume a relatively stable environment,…