There is of course grift in horizontal eras too. But the type is different and solution is different.
In a declining vertical era you get eroding brand promise. Brands go from standing for superior differentiated quality aura to overpromise/under-deliver and monopolistic apathy.
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In a horizontal era, knockoffs and unbranded sketchy quality things compete with branded things. Price premium is commanded by relationship trust and QA guarantees.
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Vertical eras are driven by distant marketing pull, horizontal by relationship sales push.
Vertical marketing is built around customer belief in secret sauces, the horizontal sales is built around customer beliefs in quality guarantees.
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We’re at the tail end of a 13-year vertical phase. Brands are eroding. Every major brand is being hollowed out. Claims of differentiation are increasingly bullshit and get called out as such. Cunning buyers develop market intelligence in cheaper grey market products and services.
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Horizontal integration I strongly suspect is on the rise. Supply chain uncertainty is an accelerant for what was already ascendant.
Pick a horizontal slice. Aggregate demand, compete on quality/features, forget differentiation, mostly ignore brand marketing, focus on sales trust
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Call it h-commerce.
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I’m now open for h-commerce consulting. You’ll get ISO-certified, industry standard benchmark-leading advice on how to go horizontal, with 30% more features than other consultants offer at my price point. Call now for free samples.
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Kidding aside, if I were to consult horizontally what would I consult on? And is consulting pro or countercyclic?
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The two axes of consulting specialization are sectoral and functional. Functional tends to align with vertical eras, sectoral with horizontal. This margin doesn’t have enough room for the proof.
I’m mostly functional and therefore a natural fit to vertical eras.
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I’ll have to check but most of my clients have been vertical. Where I’ve worked with horizontal clients it’s been despite my own positioning not because. I myself am pretty vertically integrated. There’s nobody upstream or downstream of me in the value chain besides platforms.
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Replying to
When you see a sketchy vertical player, ask: what are you hiding under apparent differentiation?
When you see a sketchy horizontal player, ask: what are you hiding under apparent substitutability?
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Replying to @vgr
One of the fingerprints of the Madoff scandal that smelled strange to industry insiders was doing stuff in-house that made no sense not to outsource. Being customers of outside firms is a sign of openness: we work the way we say we do.
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