the discipline of market leaders: a strategy for reaching the top

Discipline of Market Leaders

“Strategy is just a matter of picking what problems you want to work on in the future…success simply means you

get better problems.”

- Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s Deli

“I can’t tell you the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone”

- Ed Sheeran

The Discipline of Market Leaders

No company can succeed today by trying to be all things to all people.

We must instead find an uncommon value that to deliver to a chosen market.

Build & manage systems and facilities

for high volume repetitive

tasks.

ID, attract and build relationships with

customers.

Conceive of attractive new products &

services and commercialize

them.

Product Innovation

Operational Excellence

Customer Intimacy

A focus on the core processes of invention, product development, and market exploitation.

Product Leadership

InnovationKnowledge-ManagementCollaboration

• Providing products / services that continually redefine the state of the art.

• Kill their babies.• Key core competencies are

innovation and quality control.• Strive to be the best.• R&D & talent management.

• Total solution, not just a product or service.• Focus on what the customer wants, not

what the market wants.• Cultivate relationships, not one time

transactions.• Specialize in satisfying unique needs.• Customer needs trump operating systems

and processes.• Go the extra mile.

Customer IntimacyAn obsession with core processes of solution development, results management and relationship management.

Relationship ManagementKnowledge

Management

• Low cost offer (blend of high convenience and low price).

• Broad market focus.• Not product / service innovator; instead

delivery innovators.• Do not cultivate 1:1 customer relationships.• Execute extraordinarily well.

Operational Excellence

QualityCost

Speed

Processes for end-to-end product supply and basic service that are optimized and streamlined to minimize cost and provide hassle-free service.

Why is this important?

Share my story of picking ours.You’re never too small to start this.

How do the founders spend their time?What key messages did you pick up on?

What value

Video Case Studies

“Selection of a value discipline shapes every subsequent plan and decision a company makes,

coloring the entire organization from its core competencies to its culture.”

Decision making at the lab.

Product Leadership: Pixar

Culture & Competencies

Employee centered.

Coddling the creative stars.

Product Leadership: Pixar

Goals & Objectives

While productivity is a goal…

…quality & originality are the goal.

Product Leadership: Pixar

Environments that promote collaboration.

Conference table story.

" ... [Steve Jobs] wanted there to be mixing. He knew that the human friction makes the sparks, and that when you're talking about a creative endeavor that requires people from different cultures to come together, you have to force

them to mix; that our natural tendency is to stay isolated, to talk to people who are just like us, who speak our private

languages, who understand our problems. But that's a big mistake. And so his design

was to force people to come together even if it was just going to be in the

bathroom.”- Imagine, Jonah Lehrer

Product Leadership: Pixar

Customer Intimacy: IBM

Best price? Hardly.

Best products? Nope.

Latest technology? Negative.

It’s about the total solution.

Methods for planning new business applications.

Training management.

Providing explanations of increasing costs.

Aided with diagnosis and resolution of problems.

Upgrading & maintaining systems.

Customer Intimacy: IBM

Providing the best overal result for client.

Culture & CompetenciesDe-centralized decision making.

All activities are aligned to customer needs.Deep customer knowledge.

Not cheapest offers or most innovative.Eco-system of partners for production & delivery.

Customer Intimacy: IBM

Tailored / personalized service / products to fit needs.

Operational Excellence Example: Ikea

Luxurious show-room? No.

Best in class quality? Nope.

Helpful sales staff? Negative.

Operational Excellence Example: Ikea

Culture & Competencies

Cost focused.

Stresses standardization.

Predictability and efficiency are key.

Centralized decision making.

Rules based operations.

But aren’t these all really big companies?

Customer Intimacy: Nordstroms

On the inside of every Starbucks green apron, you will find their new customer service statement: We create inspired moments in each customer’s day.

Just below the statement are these words:- Anticipate. Anticipate what’s going to happen to them or what they want.- Connect. I love those glasses. I love that scarf. - Personalize.- Own. If they take a sip and they make a funny face or if a little girl drops her hot chocolate, offer to make another one.