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Position · Diagnose

Complementary assets — who captures the value

Whether the innovator profits from a new innovation, or whoever owns the distribution, data or regulatory approval alongside it does. Almost nobody asks this before spending.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
01 Diagnose
Works at
Corporate, Business
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
Half a day

What it is

David Teece's model for why innovators frequently fail to profit from their own innovations. Two dimensions decide the outcome: how imitable the core innovation is, and whether the assets it needs to reach a customer — manufacturing, distribution, marketing, service, regulatory approval — are tightly held by a few players or freely available to anyone.

Imitability
How hard the core innovation is to copy once it exists — strong patents and trade secrets versus something a competitor can replicate within a product cycle.
Complementary assets
What has to exist alongside the innovation for it to reach and be used by a customer: manufacturing capacity, a distribution channel, a service network, brand trust, or a regulatory approval.
Tightly held versus freely available
Whether those complementary assets are controlled by a small number of players — including possibly the innovator — or can be assembled by anyone with capital.
Who captures the value
Highly imitable innovation plus tightly-held complementary assets is the worst position for an innovator: the idea leaks and whoever holds the assets profits from it. The reverse combination is the best position for a small innovator to hold out alone.
The strategic implication
Where the analysis lands changes the right move entirely — build the complementary assets, partner with whoever holds them, licence the innovation outright, or move fast because imitation is coming regardless.
The mistake people makeAssuming a genuinely good innovation will capture its own value. Teece's whole point is that it frequently does not — the assets around the innovation, not the innovation itself, often decide who profits.
What it’s forA genuinely new capability, product or technology is being developed and you need to know whether the business is positioned to capture the value from it.
What it’s not forThe innovation is incremental to an already-established, already-profitable line, where the value-capture question was answered long ago.

How you run it

  1. Describe precisely what is novelNot the product category — the specific thing a competitor could not simply replicate. Vague novelty produces a vague imitability score.
  2. Score imitability honestlyHow long would it realistically take a well-resourced competitor to replicate this, given patents, trade secrets and complexity.
  3. Map the complementary assets the innovation needsManufacturing, distribution, service, brand trust, regulatory approval — everything that has to exist for the innovation to actually reach a customer.
  4. Assess whether those assets are tightly held or freely availableControlled by a small number of incumbents, or assemblable by anyone with capital and time.
  5. State who is positioned to capture the value, and what followsBuild the assets, partner with whoever holds them, licence out, or move fast — the four live options, chosen from where the analysis actually lands.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A clear description of what is actually novel about the innovation
  • An honest assessment of how easily a competitor could replicate it
  • A map of the assets — distribution, data, brand, regulatory approval, manufacturing — the innovation needs to reach a customer

You’ll end up with

  • A read on how imitable the core innovation actually is
  • Whether the complementary assets it needs are tightly held or freely available
  • A specific answer to who is positioned to capture the value, and what that implies for the business model

Runs well with

AI risk classification and governanceAnalysis planBusiness Model CanvasComparable company benchmark