- name
- 7-powers
- description
- Hamilton Helmer's strategic framework for achieving sustainable competitive advantage through seven distinct power types. Use when analyzing business strategy, evaluating competitive moats, assessing investment defensibility, diagnosing why a business struggles despite apparent benefits, or planning product strategy. Triggers on "7 powers", "competitive advantage", "moat", "power strategy", "Hamilton Helmer", or questions about sustainable business advantage.
7 Powers Strategic Framework
Apply Hamilton Helmer's framework: Power = Benefit (improved cash flow) + Barrier (prevents competitive arbitrage). Without both, advantage is temporary.
The Seven Powers by Lifecycle Phase
Origination (pre-PMF):
- Counter-positioning — new model would cannibalize incumbents' existing business
- Cornered Resource — preferential access to scarce resource (IP, talent, regulatory)
Takeoff (rapid growth post-PMF):
- Scale Economics — per-unit cost decreases with volume faster than competitors can match
- Network Economics — product value increases as more users join
- Switching Costs — customers face significant cost (money, time, risk) to leave
Stability (mature):
- Branding — pricing power from emotional connection beyond rational attributes
- Process Power — embedded organizational capabilities competitors can't replicate
Process
- Identify lifecycle phase — Origination → Takeoff → Stability
- List benefits the business currently has
- For each benefit, test the barrier: "What prevents competitors from copying this?"
- Map to available Powers for the current phase
- Prioritize building Powers that create both benefit AND barrier now
- Flag anti-patterns — benefits without barriers, wrong-phase Power pursuit, easily-eroded barriers
Quick Diagnostic Questions
| Power | Key Question |
|---|---|
| Scale Economics | Does cost-per-unit drop meaningfully as we grow? |
| Network Economics | Does each new user make the product better for existing users? |
| Counter-positioning | Would adopting our model hurt incumbents' current revenue? |
| Switching Costs | How painful (time, money, risk) is it for customers to leave? |
| Branding | Can we charge premium beyond rational product attributes? |
| Cornered Resource | Do we have access to something competitors literally cannot get? |
| Process Power | Can competitors observe but not replicate how we do things? |
Detailed Reference
For full examples, anti-patterns, and related frameworks: read references/powers-detail.md