In defining the term category leadership I asked Oren Barkai (B.Sc.EE, MBA) is Senior Product Manager & Solutions Team Leader for Integrated Solutions LoB a Network Solutions Division for ECI TELECOM LTD about his experience with the process of achieving new category leadership. Oren suggests a company shouldn’t cannibalize an innovation for one category when the opportunity to create a new category exists.
Oren’s background is as a product manager in the technology and telecom sectors. I asked him about his definition of category leadership. He told me that he views a company to be a category leader if they “set the standard,” for technology in the field. Oren went onto to say that he defines the standard as the company that has, “the advantage of being first to market and owning the category.”
Oren went onto describe his experience that category leadership often comes from collaboration with several partners and alliances. A new innovation may come from several sources, including a start up in the technology industry. And category leaders will adopt those new innovations to keep category leadership. Oren said his he thinks of category leadership as, “Sourcing the right technology, while working to define the standard.”
Oren cautions category leaders in thinking about the adoption of disruptive innovations, while he has seen R&D leaders and companies adopt new technologies to “improve the current product,” really good R&D strategy should be focused on “founding a new category and leading it,” if the new innovation makes that possible.
What Oren discusses is interesting I think for R&D strategy….especially how how category leaders need do that it takes through partnerships to enable them to retain category leadership, but there’s a caution that you must also think beyond today’s category, and think about the future, by developing new categories. I was thinking Steve Jobs was has been good at that process.
Note: The views expressed here are Oren’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer, ECI Telecom
Photo: Thanks for the photo by 2inches