The Category Boss Playbook

The journey of any aspiring business leader is for their company to become “category boss”. Taking your ideas, vision, products and making them “numero uno”…the world over. That’s the dream right there, to play bigger by creating an entirely new category market and bossing it. So how do you go about it?

Imagine it, your competitors in your dust. All of them left scrambling to not only catch up but thinking how on earth can they capture even a scrap of what you have? How can they make their offering anything as compelling as yours?

You’ll be in their heads as they burn their time plotting, while you spend yours selling. As category boss, you can build on your position of strength. It’s like being a racing car driver with everyone else in the pits. The longer they are there, the further your lead extends.

Now, that is not to say it’s easy. It isn’t. One doesn’t simply become category boss overnight. It takes first a great product or service, and it then has to be developing constantly, it needs to be good enough to be worthy.

LET THE GAMES COMMENCE

Whatever your focus, whether maritime informatics like me, it doesn’t matter there is no time to waste — every day you aren’t category boss means that someone else might be. We need to be overhauling, overtaking and then staying ahead. Be in the lead, make others follow.

What you need, aside from just a great idea is a playbook. A plan which focuses the mind, laser guides your efforts and points the ways and means that the company will have to embrace to deliver.

The first step is to choose the battleground. Where and on what terms are you going to engage. What is your marketplace? Who are your targets? How can you get to them, attract them, dazzle them and make them see that you are the best thing they have ever seen?

Parallel to this, you will need to be shaping your own internals. The team, rules, terms of engagement and processes ensure you have the right structure and quality, but without any bureaucracy that may hinder or hold you back. You don’t get to number one dragging a dead weight behind you.

FOUNDATIONS LAID

Ok, so the foundations are laid. You have a corporate machine that is fit for purpose. Everything is in good shape for the assault on the summit. This is about the support, systems, networks and intelligence which allow you to get to number one and stay there.

The lawyers lawyer, accountants count, the invoicing is crisp and boxed off, you have hungry salespeople champing at the bit, and a slick, energised, marketing vision. With you at the helm and your amazing product up your sleeve, you are ready.

So, what is your first move? Well, you have already made it. The desire to be number one is the strategic decision process. You have committed, now it’s about the tactics to get you there. No one will hand you this on a plate, no one will roll over and throw work or contracts at you, and the competition will most definitely fight hard.

One of the most important pieces of the master plan involves those outside the company. It can be all too tempting to just think about getting things in order in house, but this is a struggle on multiple fronts, so the foundations will be built on external supporters. Getting good people to say great things about you. Having allies who legitimise, champion and gently warm the world up for you. So, as you build your base, you need to engage, embrace, encourage and entice. Such gentle niceties can feel tough for someone wanting to rule the world, but it’s important, believe me.

BUILDING UP

Ok, so you have identified key people, outlets, networks and groups to help you. They seem to like you, they get what you are providing, and seem to be willing to get on board. Now, you need more. Now you have to build.

You have to have your designers, engineers, coders, all pushing ahead. All aligned to not just the vision of what they are producing, but that it will be expected to be worthy of the category boss title. They aren’t just building, they are creating, they are forging something amazing. Keep them aligned to the dream, seeing the vision and knowing that they are making a real difference.

Now, it is about brand awareness, about the name, the reach, the feelings people have when they see you when they see your logos, hear your product names and what they think, sense, feel and want to do. The category boss makes people react, think Apple, even the hint of a black turtle neck sweater and the world swooned. That is what we like to have, an emotional response.

The challenge is now one of reality, though that is something we can and should change (more on that later), the situation will be that either there is already a category boss and we have to overthrow, or we are in a new arena and we have to actually create a market to be the leader in, and creating an actual category to be boss of.

WHAT IS REALITY?

The stages are not easy, they take a lot of determination, effort, sacrifice, willingness, resilience and tenacity. You can do it though, that’s what makes you a champion. Which is what you will have to say into the mirror most mornings. Let’s face it, if you can’t convince yourself, how is the rest of the world going to succumb? So, game face on…eye of the tiger, etc, etc, etc.

Now, without wanting to try and be clever it can be whatever you choose it to be. To an extent. Yes, yes the Matrix, parallel universes, etc, etc. The reality for the category boss is growth. The gravitational pull on a market when you have created a category means that as it expands you have to be able to take in that growth. Because if you don’t, then someone else will…

Category creation has been termed as the “ultimate growth strategy”. With the reality being that a start-up that doesn’t either lead a new category or create one, then they are unlikely to ever be crowned. They will always be the underling. Think KFC and the myriad chicken shops which can only dream of their position.

So, if you can’t usurp, and you can’t think of a means of developing a new category, then stagnation, frustration and defeat await. Moving forward means getting out of the ruts made by others. It is by escaping their dirt thrown in your corporate face that you can see the new road ahead.

THROUGH THE GEARS

Then, when you have shifted lanes and it is a clear path ahead, then you can transform and start going through the gears to accelerate away from the competition. In creating a new market for your product, you can become the default and obvious option for clients.

The category boss becomes the anchor around which all solutions, clients and the market coalesce. Everyone looks to you, and that attention can be readily turned into even more growth. The hive mind of the market follows the waggle dancer of those that go before.

So, once you’ve developed your great company identity, brand and reputation, once you have produced an amazing product, and when you have created a whole new category, well once you have done all that, then success this way comes. Though it still isn’t the end. This is the start…

It is down to you though, the leader. It is your vision, your knowledge, skill, wisdom, fortitude and ability which will make this happen. From there the company culture has to develop, to grow, to mature and evolve. Being bigger, better, faster, fitter, stronger, visible, respected, and chosen by clients, these are the challenges for even the category boss. But if you think it is tough at the top, imagine being at the bottom.