The latest McKinsey Quarterly contained a brief article defining what the authors see as the "five crucibles of change that will restructure the world economy".  A good read but no earth shattering insights with respect to any of the five crucibles (growth in developing economies, need to improve productivity, we're more connected, sustainability matters and a growing public sector).

But there was one innocuous statement early in the article that strikes a chord:  "the biggest business challenge is responding to a world in which the frame and basis of competition are always changing".

The "frame and basis of competition". 

I love this phrase because it captures a really, really complex issue as succinctly as possible.  It presupposes that tectonic shifts are occuring below our very feet, that what we thought our view was is no longer and who we thought our competition was isn't really so.  Or at least those former world views are now rendered, at best, incomplete.

I also liked how they chose to use the word "responding" instead of something more proactive like "driving".  The subliminal message here is that, despite how we all like to think we're brilliant strategists, quite often the difference between life and death (in the business sense) is actually the ability to adjust, morph and adapt (vs. kill before being killed).

McKinsey has a habit sometimes of taking 100 words to say something that could have been said in 5.  Not so in this case.