As companies prepare to compete in an uncertain future, they can try different strategic postures. Adapters take the current industry structure and its future evolution as givens and choose where to compete. Most companies take this posture by conducting standard strategic analysis and choosing how to compete within given environments. In contrast, shapers try to change the structure of their industries, creating a future competitive landscape of their own design.1 There are vast opportunities to create new markets. Articulated needs are those that customers acknowledge and try to satisfy. Unarticulated needs are those that customers have not yet experienced. Served customers are those to whom your company is now selling, and unserved customers are untapped markets. While business as usual concentrates on serving only articulated needs, the leaders who recreate the game are constantly trying to create new opportunities to satisfy unarticulated and unserved needs.2 Consider you work for Procter and Gamble. Today at work, youre asked about your thoughts on whether P&G should create new markets or just better serve the ones where they are already operating. To help you think about this question, consider a few of P&Gs past products and market decisions. Sources:

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