Defensive Plays for Incumbents
Incumbents rarely lose because they lack resources; they lose because inertia blinds them to change. This guide walks established organisations through a defensive arc built on Managing Inertia, Raising Barriers to Entry, and Defensive Regulation. Work through each section with your latest Wardley Map so you can identify where you must evolve, where to obstruct rivals, and when policy becomes the battleground.
🧱 Confront Inertia Before You Fortify​
Begin by mapping the user journey alongside your internal capabilities. Mark components that are stuck in legacy stages despite the market shifting rightward. These are the anchors holding you back. Convene a cross-functional session to catalogue the four forms of inertia—fear, culture, financial, and political—and tie each one to specific components on the map. For example, a profitable but declining product may be propped up by political capital or sunk-cost thinking. Use the Managing Inertia assessment checklist to prioritise which bottlenecks threaten your ability to respond. Commit to doctrine such as Use a Common Language and reinforce Change Management practices to create psychological safety for change.
🔄 Build a Renewal Cadence​
Managing inertia is not a one-off campaign. Establish a renewal rhythm that pairs landscape reviews with action. Every quarter, redraw the map and run a pre-mortem: if a challenger overtook us, what did they exploit? Translate answers into concrete moves—ring-fence investment for modernization, rotate leaders through emerging units, and create sunset plans for products that no longer differentiate. Encourage teams to pilot Open Approaches or partnerships that let you learn faster than a pure defensive stance would allow. The objective is to transform inertia from a default state into a signal that invites intervention.
🛡️ Layer Barriers That Align with Value​
Once the organisation is more responsive, turn to Raising Barriers to Entry. Map the capabilities that create switching costs or integration depth. Look for opportunities to bundle complementary services, enhance data network effects, or formalise standards that competitors must adopt. Remember that the best barriers are customer-aligned: loyalty programs, ecosystem certifications, and superior compliance tooling make it rational for customers to stay with you. Combine barriers with Tower and Moat logic—innovate at the tower, codify at the moat. Document each barrier explicitly so you can monitor whether it is eroding or creating unintended friction for users.
🕊️ Use Regulation as a Shield, Not a Bludgeon​
Defensive regulation is most effective when it reinforces legitimate public goals. Identify the societal or systemic risks that your leadership genuinely mitigates—security, resilience, or trusted stewardship of sensitive data. Engage policymakers early with evidence from your maps: show how the value chain operates, where new entrants might cut corners, and the consequences for users. Co-create standards or certification regimes that codify those safeguards. Pair this with transparency initiatives so that regulators see you as a partner rather than a rent-seeker. Maintain optionality by preparing alternative scenarios; if regulation fails or backfires, you should already have the next adaptation path mapped.
🧬 Synchronise the Defensive System​
The power of this trilogy comes from integration. Managing inertia keeps the organisation adaptable so that barriers remain current. Barriers buy time for regulatory strategies to mature, while regulation can legitimize the investments that sustain your moat. Track leading indicators: speed-to-decision for change initiatives, percentage of revenue tied to bundled offerings, policy milestones achieved, and competitor response time. Share these metrics widely to maintain vigilance. When a new threat emerges—perhaps a Tech Drop or Undermining Barriers to Entry play—update the map and decide whether to double down on defence or pivot to an offensive counter.
🧠Keep the User at the Centre​
Defence fails when it becomes purely self-serving. Close each planning cycle by stress-testing user value: are your barriers improving experience or merely slowing the market? Are regulatory efforts preventing harm or blocking progress? Invite customers, partners, and even sceptics to annotate your maps. Their feedback will reveal where defence has drifted into complacency. The incumbents who endure are those who defend while simultaneously inventing the next horizon of value.