What do you think?
Rate this book
Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Consumer Disruption
Based on eight years of research visiting dozens of startups, tech companies and incumbents, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira shows how and why consumer industries are disrupted, and what established companies can do about it—while highlighting the specific strategies potential startups use to gain a competitive edge. There is a pattern to digital disruption in an industry, whether the disruptor is Uber, Airbnb, Dollar Shave Club, Pillpack or one of countless other startups that have stolen large portions of market share from industry leaders, often in a matter of a few years.As Teixeira makes clear, the nature of competition has fundamentally changed. Using innovative new business models, startups are stealing customers by breaking the links in how consumers discover, buy and use products and services. By decoupling the customer value chain, these startups, instead of taking on the Unilevers and Nikes, BMW’s and Sephoras of the world head on, peel away a piece of the consumer purchasing process. Birchbox offered women a new way to sample beauty products from a variety of companies from the convenience of their homes, without having to visit a store. Turo doesn't compete with GM. Instead, it offers people the benefit of driving without having to own a car themselves.Illustrated with vivid, indepth and exclusive accounts of both startups, and reigning incumbents like Best Buy and Comcast, as they struggle to respond, Unlocking the Customer Value Chain is an essential guide to demystifying how digital disruption takes place – and what companies can do to defend themselves.
345 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 19, 2019
313 people are currently reading
1250 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
July 27, 2019
I have been building new businesses for the last 12 years. I have read a lot of books and spoken to a lot of people who have also built new businesses. So I know a little about disruptive business models. And yet I was blown away by this book. Its easily one of the very best business books that you can find on understanding the dynamics of disruptive business models. I have been recommending it to everyone and getting a lot of thank you's.
The core argument in this book is to understand the business model from a customers view point. Thales lays it out in the form of a framework he calls the Customer Value Chain. This framework splits the various steps in the customer journey and classifies them as value creating and value destroying. A disruptive business can take one or more parts of this chain and build a business around it by offering a superior customer experience. By doing so, they disrupt the existing business models - often taking away their most profitable and value enhancing components.
This is an elegant framework. Reminds me of those elegant mathematical proofs. Simple yet rigorous. As Thales puts his framework to test in various scenarios from different industries, its effectiveness in explaining disruption becomes apparent. There are enough practical examples to explain the different points.
A corollary of this model is the debunking of the technology myth - that disruptive business models are built on technological innovations. Unless, you are building a tech product, technology only enhances and enables the scaling up of the business. Disruptive business models need the fuel of intelligent insights that comes from understanding the customer value chain.
It also offers useful advice to the incumbents. On how to deal with disruption.
The core argument in this book is to understand the business model from a customers view point. Thales lays it out in the form of a framework he calls the Customer Value Chain. This framework splits the various steps in the customer journey and classifies them as value creating and value destroying. A disruptive business can take one or more parts of this chain and build a business around it by offering a superior customer experience. By doing so, they disrupt the existing business models - often taking away their most profitable and value enhancing components.
This is an elegant framework. Reminds me of those elegant mathematical proofs. Simple yet rigorous. As Thales puts his framework to test in various scenarios from different industries, its effectiveness in explaining disruption becomes apparent. There are enough practical examples to explain the different points.
A corollary of this model is the debunking of the technology myth - that disruptive business models are built on technological innovations. Unless, you are building a tech product, technology only enhances and enables the scaling up of the business. Disruptive business models need the fuel of intelligent insights that comes from understanding the customer value chain.
It also offers useful advice to the incumbents. On how to deal with disruption.
March 14, 2021
This book is written by a Harvard professor and it feels like it. It's very formal in its tone and language. There are examples of companies in this book, but they are not the usual journalist-style business stories. So it takes more effort to read this book.
However, if you are willing to put the effort in, then there are some really useful insights in this book about how businesses make money--especially how they make money by taking market share from other businesses.
The first major section shares "decoupling" ideas to help you disrupt an industry. That means breaking down each step of the customer experience (with lots technical labels for each step, by the way) and finding a way to offer valuable steps in isolation, or "decoupling" them from the overall chain, so they get value without having to pay the price of the other, less valuable steps.
The final section covers how big incumbent businesses can defend their market share, when it makes sense to force a strong coupling of services or when you should just offer your own decoupling options.
Not going to help most people in their day to day jobs, but if you do strategy or are C-Suite/Board Member of a business this is a strong read.
However, if you are willing to put the effort in, then there are some really useful insights in this book about how businesses make money--especially how they make money by taking market share from other businesses.
The first major section shares "decoupling" ideas to help you disrupt an industry. That means breaking down each step of the customer experience (with lots technical labels for each step, by the way) and finding a way to offer valuable steps in isolation, or "decoupling" them from the overall chain, so they get value without having to pay the price of the other, less valuable steps.
The final section covers how big incumbent businesses can defend their market share, when it makes sense to force a strong coupling of services or when you should just offer your own decoupling options.
Not going to help most people in their day to day jobs, but if you do strategy or are C-Suite/Board Member of a business this is a strong read.
December 17, 2020
The authors contrived a model of "decoupling". The initial analysis of Best Buy made sense. But then they stretched "decoupling" to explain numerous effects.
Offering a free sample is "decoupling" the initial experience and payment. Creating a marketplace is "decoupling". Creating subscriptions is "decoupling".
The second half of the book is rehashing known concepts from online blog posts by other people (getting the first customers, do things that initially don't scale, etc).
If this were a 2-page blog post about Best Buy, it would be good. The rest is fluff.
Offering a free sample is "decoupling" the initial experience and payment. Creating a marketplace is "decoupling". Creating subscriptions is "decoupling".
The second half of the book is rehashing known concepts from online blog posts by other people (getting the first customers, do things that initially don't scale, etc).
If this were a 2-page blog post about Best Buy, it would be good. The rest is fluff.
April 25, 2020
Customers Journey is not a straight line.
This book attempts to provide another framework in the field of Human Centric Design. The main ideas revolve around trying to understand the progress a customer makes in order to complete a given task or fulfil a need. It sounds simple in theory, but the steps taken by the consumer is not like a series of beads connected together through a straight line. But, more like a Tree with branches originating in different dimensions.
At every step, the consumer has multiple ways to choose from. Some are straightforward, but some might seems to be completely unrelated to the given goal a consumer choose to reach. For examples, a consumer might want to watch a series on Netflix at 11 PM, but then a friend called and they involve in a 1 hours long conversation. At times, the consumer might say to the friend, I'll you later.
The phone from a friend if competing with Netflix, not for the consumers need to watch a TV Series, but to engage in something entertaining. Is a friend has more meaning conversation to do, they will easily replace Netflix. Else NOT!
This book provides a simple to understand and easy to implement a framework to understand the same complex networks of branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, trunk, seeds, roots, which altogether constitute what we call - Customers Journey!
This book attempts to provide another framework in the field of Human Centric Design. The main ideas revolve around trying to understand the progress a customer makes in order to complete a given task or fulfil a need. It sounds simple in theory, but the steps taken by the consumer is not like a series of beads connected together through a straight line. But, more like a Tree with branches originating in different dimensions.
At every step, the consumer has multiple ways to choose from. Some are straightforward, but some might seems to be completely unrelated to the given goal a consumer choose to reach. For examples, a consumer might want to watch a series on Netflix at 11 PM, but then a friend called and they involve in a 1 hours long conversation. At times, the consumer might say to the friend, I'll you later.
The phone from a friend if competing with Netflix, not for the consumers need to watch a TV Series, but to engage in something entertaining. Is a friend has more meaning conversation to do, they will easily replace Netflix. Else NOT!
This book provides a simple to understand and easy to implement a framework to understand the same complex networks of branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, trunk, seeds, roots, which altogether constitute what we call - Customers Journey!
August 16, 2020
Uno de los mejores libros de innovación, disrupción y creación de valor para los clientes que he leído. A los que estén buscando un libro para tener ideas para un nuevo negocio u oportunidades para el que ya tiene, este es el libro.
March 26, 2020
Muito bom livro sobre a disrupção de gigantes, não através de novos produtos mas através de inovações do modelo de negócio, e de como os incumbentes podem reagir.
October 19, 2020
My notes from the book:
Your fate is in Your customer’s hands - there are plenty of examples like Nokia, that were not saved by technical innovation by itself; one always has to focus on the needs of the customer. Decoupling = the usual chain of business are being cut into pieces and the most beneficial part is served by new competition. One has to think out of the box - physical stores started to ask money from Samsung etc, when people visiting the store started to buy from Amazon. One has to think: what value am I giving to the client (showroom for Samsung products) that I am not yet asking money in return? Another examples are grocery stores with a fix sum per month for visiting - so it can lose profits on margins, but make up with monthly fee. RyanAir example: the flight tickets by itself are so cheap and not beneficial, but serving additional services ends up with 5 trillion USD profit. And while everyone today is searching for technology innovation 10x more than business innovation, the real goldmine lies in the latter. Talks about “business wars”, when You attack the competition and “win” clients as trophies - but the new disruptive decoupling is investigating the client needs and serving a tiny chain of the business without “attacking” any competition at all. I liked the example from Twitch, that they pivoted on the data od 2% users only (who liked streaming video game play), and this little niche ended up selling over a trillion USD on exit. But be warned: decoupling companies soon lose their edge too (a clone or the original competition provider pivoting too). USA courts decided that decoupling is legal - producing alternatives to Gillette razor blades etc, color printer cartridges etc. Advice to classical companies - see the chain of business You are providing as a pipeline of oil and look where there are clients You can not serve or are not interested to serve; this is the oil leak and other decouplers will start providing services fro this niche. So cover up all your oil leaks if You don’t want disruptors to eat into Your business. The key is to constantly do research among Your clients to see what percentage of them are ready to switch and why. There is no possibility to buy out a disruptor, because another one would take its place; You have to alter Your business model instead. And You can not overreact also, like in 2013-2015 Yahoo spent 2.3 billions to acquire 52 startups, of which only 2 were fully integrated - and Yahoo was sold for 4 billions in 2018. Overreacting is as harmful as underreacting. AirBNB found out by testing that local events was 5x more cheaper than internet ads to get a city to integrate into their site. Always be testing. If You are the new disruptor then don’t try to win over clients of other companies, but find ways to serve those that can not be served by the other. In a startup it’s very important to get one additional client compared to old companies requiring “another” client, so You might sign up “leftovers” that can not be scalably signed up by bigger companies. Uber and AirBNB went door to door - if You lack customers early, then You have nothing to scale. When trying to branch out with current customers into new fields, first do research if this field is needed by them. Dooh. But yes, there is value in serving another field with the same brand/UI for clients - and you don’t even have to produce best quality. But remember to stay the top quality in Your main field. In startups the customers need are the first priority, but when growing this tends to lose focus since other problems arrive, and the risk tolerance goes down with trying more to lose small than win big. The customer should STAY number one, always. Lao Zu: “Those that have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge”. Future predictions are not important (since we can not serve that yet), instead try to know the reality better. Mark Zuckerberg always dresses the same to have one fewer option to choose in a day. When You start being aggressive on what Your business does (e.g the taxi driver aggressive towards other cars), You forget having Your focus on the client. War-like mindset in companies comes with the price of seeing the customer as a “price”, this is a bad mentality.
Your fate is in Your customer’s hands - there are plenty of examples like Nokia, that were not saved by technical innovation by itself; one always has to focus on the needs of the customer. Decoupling = the usual chain of business are being cut into pieces and the most beneficial part is served by new competition. One has to think out of the box - physical stores started to ask money from Samsung etc, when people visiting the store started to buy from Amazon. One has to think: what value am I giving to the client (showroom for Samsung products) that I am not yet asking money in return? Another examples are grocery stores with a fix sum per month for visiting - so it can lose profits on margins, but make up with monthly fee. RyanAir example: the flight tickets by itself are so cheap and not beneficial, but serving additional services ends up with 5 trillion USD profit. And while everyone today is searching for technology innovation 10x more than business innovation, the real goldmine lies in the latter. Talks about “business wars”, when You attack the competition and “win” clients as trophies - but the new disruptive decoupling is investigating the client needs and serving a tiny chain of the business without “attacking” any competition at all. I liked the example from Twitch, that they pivoted on the data od 2% users only (who liked streaming video game play), and this little niche ended up selling over a trillion USD on exit. But be warned: decoupling companies soon lose their edge too (a clone or the original competition provider pivoting too). USA courts decided that decoupling is legal - producing alternatives to Gillette razor blades etc, color printer cartridges etc. Advice to classical companies - see the chain of business You are providing as a pipeline of oil and look where there are clients You can not serve or are not interested to serve; this is the oil leak and other decouplers will start providing services fro this niche. So cover up all your oil leaks if You don’t want disruptors to eat into Your business. The key is to constantly do research among Your clients to see what percentage of them are ready to switch and why. There is no possibility to buy out a disruptor, because another one would take its place; You have to alter Your business model instead. And You can not overreact also, like in 2013-2015 Yahoo spent 2.3 billions to acquire 52 startups, of which only 2 were fully integrated - and Yahoo was sold for 4 billions in 2018. Overreacting is as harmful as underreacting. AirBNB found out by testing that local events was 5x more cheaper than internet ads to get a city to integrate into their site. Always be testing. If You are the new disruptor then don’t try to win over clients of other companies, but find ways to serve those that can not be served by the other. In a startup it’s very important to get one additional client compared to old companies requiring “another” client, so You might sign up “leftovers” that can not be scalably signed up by bigger companies. Uber and AirBNB went door to door - if You lack customers early, then You have nothing to scale. When trying to branch out with current customers into new fields, first do research if this field is needed by them. Dooh. But yes, there is value in serving another field with the same brand/UI for clients - and you don’t even have to produce best quality. But remember to stay the top quality in Your main field. In startups the customers need are the first priority, but when growing this tends to lose focus since other problems arrive, and the risk tolerance goes down with trying more to lose small than win big. The customer should STAY number one, always. Lao Zu: “Those that have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge”. Future predictions are not important (since we can not serve that yet), instead try to know the reality better. Mark Zuckerberg always dresses the same to have one fewer option to choose in a day. When You start being aggressive on what Your business does (e.g the taxi driver aggressive towards other cars), You forget having Your focus on the client. War-like mindset in companies comes with the price of seeing the customer as a “price”, this is a bad mentality.
November 2, 2021
Unlocking the customer value chain: How decoupling drives consumer disruption by Thales S. Teixeira is one of the most critical, paradigm-shifting read on disruption & disruptors. Drawing on the "disruptive innovation" concept from Prof. Clayton M. Christensen, the author has, over a period of 8 years, researched multiple companies across a wide band of startups, large incumbents, and tech companies to identify a crucial link that disruptors break in the Customer Value Chain (CVC) of large incumbents, to achieve success
The book is replete with many new references to startups - that have disrupted established players in the specific industry as well as brought out how inertia and decline in innovative approaches within the large incumbents - that have leveraged these factors to succeed in a cutthroat environment. Also, as a reminder and refresher for incumbents, the author has brought out the importance of reverting to customer-centric approaches, rather than remaining firm-centric, to ensure they avoid the mistake that many large corporations made, after they gained market share
After the era of The Lean Startup, Zero to One, Innovation Stack, and Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, the concept of decoupling is already disrupting multiple industries where startups are succeeding through efforts to deliver products or services that are customer-centric and looking to break the weak links in CVC of large incumbents. It is truly a commendable effort by the author, in both sharing the concept/theory behind the decouplers as well as his own journey in unearthing something as subtle as identifying, leveraging, executing, and winning on the strength of linkages within the CVC. This is one book, any intra- or entrepreneur, who have bright ideas and are interested in disrupting the industry or service should not miss!
The book is replete with many new references to startups - that have disrupted established players in the specific industry as well as brought out how inertia and decline in innovative approaches within the large incumbents - that have leveraged these factors to succeed in a cutthroat environment. Also, as a reminder and refresher for incumbents, the author has brought out the importance of reverting to customer-centric approaches, rather than remaining firm-centric, to ensure they avoid the mistake that many large corporations made, after they gained market share
After the era of The Lean Startup, Zero to One, Innovation Stack, and Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, the concept of decoupling is already disrupting multiple industries where startups are succeeding through efforts to deliver products or services that are customer-centric and looking to break the weak links in CVC of large incumbents. It is truly a commendable effort by the author, in both sharing the concept/theory behind the decouplers as well as his own journey in unearthing something as subtle as identifying, leveraging, executing, and winning on the strength of linkages within the CVC. This is one book, any intra- or entrepreneur, who have bright ideas and are interested in disrupting the industry or service should not miss!
November 29, 2021
Most of the people believe that using new technologies is most important reason of startups and new companies but authors of this book think differently. They think focusing on customers and changing in their behavior is the main reason of startups success.
So the authors write this book based on this mindset and try to prove it by providing and examining different successful startups and companies. The authors mindset about the market and its changes is so interesting and somehow I agree with it.
The authors believes that for having a successful business you don’t need extraordinary technologies and just with paying attention to customer and their behavior changes and try to build your business model base on changes is enough.
Book could be useful for managers and executives of established businesses but it will also prove valuable for entrepreneurs who wish to learn how to disrupt markets in a more disciplined, orderly fashion, with less risk. The book should also help general readers who wish to understand how digital businesses really work.
So the authors write this book based on this mindset and try to prove it by providing and examining different successful startups and companies. The authors mindset about the market and its changes is so interesting and somehow I agree with it.
The authors believes that for having a successful business you don’t need extraordinary technologies and just with paying attention to customer and their behavior changes and try to build your business model base on changes is enough.
Book could be useful for managers and executives of established businesses but it will also prove valuable for entrepreneurs who wish to learn how to disrupt markets in a more disciplined, orderly fashion, with less risk. The book should also help general readers who wish to understand how digital businesses really work.
March 28, 2025
Unlocking the Customer Value Chain” by Thales S. Teixeira offers a deep dive into how businesses can stay ahead by understanding consumer behavior and market disruptions. However, the book leans heavily on theory, making it a challenging read with dense language and complex explanations. I found it difficult to push through, as the concepts weren’t always presented in the most digestible way.
That said, the key takeaway is valuable: businesses should focus less on direct competition and more on consumers—understanding their evolving needs, spotting trends, and identifying gaps that give startups a disruptive edge. This shift in perspective is crucial for long-term success. While the book may not be the most engaging read, its lessons on staying customer-centric and continuously assessing market changes are worth considering for entrepreneurs and marketers willing to sift through the heavy content. #wulsread
That said, the key takeaway is valuable: businesses should focus less on direct competition and more on consumers—understanding their evolving needs, spotting trends, and identifying gaps that give startups a disruptive edge. This shift in perspective is crucial for long-term success. While the book may not be the most engaging read, its lessons on staying customer-centric and continuously assessing market changes are worth considering for entrepreneurs and marketers willing to sift through the heavy content. #wulsread
October 20, 2020
A new perspective into disruptive innovation, claiming that disruption comes from breaking the link (decoupling) between activities of a customer value chain in a way that enables a new player to take over a significant market share. The book takes a customer-centric point of view to Porter’s value chain tool, and looks into many examples of companies that have decoupled and recoupled it.
One interesting idea that stuck to my head was that to be innovative, companies should organise themselves around teams that manage (at least) one customer value creating, value capturing and value eroding activity.
One interesting idea that stuck to my head was that to be innovative, companies should organise themselves around teams that manage (at least) one customer value creating, value capturing and value eroding activity.
February 15, 2022
This is an average book, the whole idea could have been written in 50-100 pages at most.
The idea itself is not new, author basically reinvented the wheel by describing old knowledge with new fancy terms.
Customer Value Chain, Decoupling/Re-coupling = Lean thinking, Lean Mapping, Customer Journey, Service Blueprinting, Service Design, Customer Value, etc.
If you have no idea about those concepts, the book is well worth the reading, but, for those who already know these concepts, you will barely find anything new in it.
The idea itself is not new, author basically reinvented the wheel by describing old knowledge with new fancy terms.
Customer Value Chain, Decoupling/Re-coupling = Lean thinking, Lean Mapping, Customer Journey, Service Blueprinting, Service Design, Customer Value, etc.
If you have no idea about those concepts, the book is well worth the reading, but, for those who already know these concepts, you will barely find anything new in it.
May 18, 2020
Muito bom livro. Traz um olhar diferenciado para avaliar disrupções sob a ótica do mercado - clientes e cadeia de valor. Oferece questionamentos importantes para refletir sobre os modelos de negócios atuais e como startups estão se especializando para quebrar essas cadeias de valor expandir seus negócios.
July 21, 2019
Loved this book. As an accountant, linking all about Business Models and technology together is the linked we know is there but this book shows exactly where. This is the book you need to read to help with business transformation and survival today.
January 20, 2020
Nice read. Lengthy but full of really solid examples of modern companies. Lots of fascinating statistics. Author gets a little caught up in defining his own terms (which I’ve already forgotten) but otherwise great book.
November 22, 2020
Its fine. The concept of decoupling is worth investigating, knowing and having an eye on.
I would rather had this as an academic 50-100 page paper (will case studies in text boxs) than a book.
3-4/5 stars.
I would rather had this as an academic 50-100 page paper (will case studies in text boxs) than a book.
3-4/5 stars.
January 12, 2021
True disruption does not come from innovation in fancy technologies, it comes from innovation in business models via decoupling of value chain.
Companies do not thrive by finding ways to crush the competitors, they thrive by finding new ways to better serve customer needs.
Companies do not thrive by finding ways to crush the competitors, they thrive by finding new ways to better serve customer needs.
August 4, 2021
Interesting listen on the customer value chain. There was a lot of data to help make the point of who the customer is, what’s important to them at different stages and how we can reach them as a customer and marketer. Helpful graphs and charts as well.
March 25, 2022
A simple promising model stretched and applied far beyond its applicability or usefulness. Two or three nuggets of insight inundated by verbiage and spurious generalisations. This should have been a short HBR article.
March 27, 2022
For some reason I have been dragging this book for over 2 months, unable to finish. Its a very interesting topic, couple of great stories and examples. But somehow i have been unable to dig deep and fully focus, which made it quite difficult to just keep reading.
October 13, 2023
A good book providing guidance on how to think strategically about positioning yourself, either as a startup or incumbent, to capitalise on shifting consumer behaviour through analysing and understanding the customer value chain.
I consider this one of the better business strategy books I've read.
I consider this one of the better business strategy books I've read.
January 6, 2024
Thales offers a revolutionary perspective on disruption in his book, arguing persuasively that true disruption originates from customer needs rather than technology. Packed with rich examples and in-depth analysis, it’s an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs and executives, challenging and expanding traditional business thinking. Its insightful approach makes it an essential read, one that deserves to be a staple in all MBA courses, transforming the way future leaders think about innovation and market dynamics.
September 5, 2024
Good book on how current innovations arise mostly by changes in consumer behavior in the chain of steps that they do to satisfy all their needs, being able to detect them in this framework more easily to create more value being an entrepreneur or already an established company.
March 24, 2019
A great new view on the future of business and current innovation with hands on examples. First few chapters are great but after understanding the concept, the book becomes a little long.
February 16, 2020
Great framework of looking at businesses through customer value chains
April 5, 2020
Enjoyable and worth reading. Not exactly what I was looking for though.
June 23, 2020
This book is more valuable than an MBA, it must become a MUST reading for any person in every industry.
Outstanding and mind-blowing LECTURE.
Outstanding and mind-blowing LECTURE.
July 2, 2020
Quite difficult book: a lot of unknown and unusual words, but main ideas are really good and I really like this book.
July 19, 2020
Brilliant book for anyone who is interested in knowing more about business models and how it evolves in the tech space contributing directly to disruption.
July 19, 2020
Fresh book, some new ideas, even for experienced readers...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews