7 Powers

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

1. Identify lifecycle phase — Origination → Takeoff → Stability
2. List benefits the business currently has
3. For each benefit, test the barrier: "What prevents competitors from copying this?"
4. Map to available Powers for the current phase
5. Prioritize building Powers that create both benefit AND barrier now
6. 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