The classic five-module value-chain has no more room for companies to eke out sources of differentiation. The solution: create a sixth module, aimed at integrating information into the value offering, and occupy it before your rivals.

Contemporary corporate strategy, a confluence of the Porterian and Prahaladian perspectives, demands that you look for competitive advantage in those unique activities on the value-chain that you can perform better, cheaper, and quicker than anyone else-an ability that flows from your core competence. But what if all the berths on it are already occupied? Is the search for a differentiator bound to end in failure if every slot on the chain is already taken by one, or more, players who cannot be beaten at their game? Actually, no. And the solution, towards which an ever-fattening body of management thinking is migrating, is obvious: when there is no room on the value-chain, extend the chain-and occupy the new slot.

The difference between the winners and the also-rans lies, of course, in the choice of the activity to add to the classic value-chain which comprises in-bound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. One answer, coming from gurus as diverse as Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Tom Peters-even if they don't state it in as many words-is information. In the ability to provide the customer with relevant information lies the next source of competitive advantage. To the present 5 elements of the value-chain, therefore, add one more: information-vending.

In a recent article in Executive Excellence, Kanter points out that today's customer wants integrated solutions to her needs-not piece-meal products and service components, even if each is bought at the best price, which she has to then assemble on her own. In other words, her preferred supplier is the company that will not only offer its own product or service, but also integrate complementary and supplementary products and services-whether they are sold by partners or competitors-into a complete need-fulfilment experience. A major component of this package, naturally, is information.

From a different direction, Peters arrives at the same conclusion: the most prominent content of the service focus that he passionately urges every company to adopt, irrespective of the nature of its product, is information that will enable the customer to take a superior decision and derive greater benefits from her purchase. The formal framework for a value-chain where companies can derive a competitive advantage from reading information-and, perhaps, even focusing only on this aspect, as publishers of restaurant-guides or programme-listings do, for instance-comes from the Boston Consulting Group's consultants Philip B. Evans and Thomas S. Wurster. In their Harvard Business Review (September-October, 1997) article on the economics of information, they point out that the balance of power among competitors is, often, determined by the asymmetry of information between them.

Thus, the player with access to more information that the customer can benefit from can use it to steal a march over his rivals. Indeed, as more and more products get commoditised, information, they argue, could remain the only real source of competitive advantage. The impetus for that, as info-business guru Esther Dyson reasons, comes from the fact that today's company sells its products or services to the connected customer, whose networking abilities already give her access to a great deal of information. So, by identifying, whetting, and satisfying the appetite for data that this has created, companies can differentiate themselves successfully.

In fact, Evans and Wurster contend that information need not even be considered a new component of the value-chain; that it is actually fused into the physical processes that constitute the 5-module chain. And companies that can improve the information content of any activity will, in the process, achieve a competitive advantage too. Used in this fashion, information will not merely be an element of a product-service package that companies offer to keep up. It will, instead, be a tangible way by which customers can differentiate one product from another-and choose the information-richer option. And for you to add value to your value-chain.

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