The business strategy (small s) is a route to continuing power in significant markets. Being there (statics) is one thing, but getting there (dynamics) is quite another. Not only should businesses know which of the 7 Powers will be their static strategy, but also how and when to build and execute on them. Timing is key. Me too won’t do. Invent new things and create compelling value. Only then will businesses have the opportunity to gain continued power in a significant market. Continue reading here.

• Develop a Competitor Strategy: The Four Forces of Jobs to be Done written by Joe Leech.

I wrote about how copying the competition doesn’t lead to innovation. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a strategy to help users to switch to your product and service. Read it here.

Four Forces

Timeline

Competitors

Kano Prioritisation JTBD (downloadable pdf)

This page notes our progress to date on the category design challenge. Want to know what this is about? Read the book Play Bigger or these notes are great.

Category is the New Strategy

Today the powerful transforming force is the category — creating a new market for a new product, often (but not always) from a new company. A great message, a great product, a great innovation — these things are no longer enough on their own. Now it’s critical to develop a great new market category in concert with building a great company and product.

Category design is the discipline of creating and developing a new market category, and conditioning the market so it will demand your solution and crown your company as its king.

Customers need new categories are mental tags to organize new products in their minds.

Before customers care about what a new product does they have to understand what problem it solves.

In B2B a new category

• becomes an item in a company budget. For instance SEO/SEM (Google) or CRM (Salesforce)
• become a magic quadrant in software vendors reports
• become an expertise and a job
• business people love business jargon. Airbnb says “Belong anywhere”, never went vocal about community-driven hospitality.

Resources for Consultancies

• Performance Bands — 2Bobs
• Mastering the Value Conversation — 2Bobs

A written contract benefits the party with the least power.

Power might be in the form of money, access to plenty of lawyers or simply a willingness to burn it all down to the ground. Continue reading here.

From the 2Bobs Podcast, they waffle for the first 5 minutes or so but know their stuff.

David wrote The Business of Expertise & Blair wrote Win Without Pitching.

• Performance Bands — 2Bobs
• Here’s how to have the value conversation: Mastering the Value Conversation — 2Bobs