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| Home - Industry Article - Apr 05 Issue |
Five Key Components of Market Leadership
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One: Make technology and product differentiation a top priority. To accomplish this, invest significantly in aggressive development programs, including strategic acquisition strategies that accelerate and bring to life the differentiation that provides superior value to customers.
Two: Build an extensive partner network that teams the company with other industry leaders to extend its reach and enhance, as well as endorse, the benefits that the company can deliver to customers.
Three: Strive to recruit and retain highly talented individuals in all disciplines within the company. At the end of the day, the company is only the sum of the people who are in it; people are key to driving everything the company does. Frequently, the company with top talent can surpass the one with the “best” technology.
Four: Make the customer central to everything the company does. This means delivering for the customer at every level – provide exceptional products, field a top-notch sales and services team to ensure high customer satisfaction, and provide education and training programs that set the standard for the market. Venues that include the customer in the product development process, such as a Customer Advisory Board and a Technical Advisory Board made up of individuals from a broad sampling of the customer base, play a key role in fortifying the bond of loyalty between the company and customers and in ultimately building the popularity that testifies to leadership.
Five: Focus on running a fiscally responsible organization. This entails focus on profitability while underwriting what it takes to achieve sustained differentiation and sustained execution in the marketplace.
How will you know, apart from revenue and financial performance, if the company has been successful in establishing a leadership position? Reports from the media, industry analysts, and financial analysts offer some proof points. But, there is another, more powerful and interesting form of validation you will start to see happen: competitors will begin to follow the company. Competitors will begin expressing messages promoting offerings that are meant to appear similar to those of the company. This flattery is a good thing, it endorses the company’s approach, and it is good for business because it increases the visibility of the strategic relevance of the company’s solutions and their impact on customers. It also gives the company more comparative opportunities against which it can demonstrate the value of its differentiation and its capacity to execute in the critical areas affecting customer care, innovation, partnerships, and fundamental company performance.
Of course, as others follow, the challenge becomes to remain the leader. Continued strong execution on the combination of the five key points of differentiation, partnerships, talent, customer focus and fiscal responsibility will likely separate the sustained leaders from the “flash in the pan.”
Peter Gyenes is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ascential Software Corporation. Peter was formerly CEO of Informix Corporation and led the transition from Informix to Ascential. Prior to Informix's acquisition of Ardent Software, Inc., he was chairman, president and CEO of Ardent, which he joined in 1996 after the company was formed through the merger of V-Mark and UniData. He can be reached for feedback at: peter.gyenes@ascential.com
 
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