Strategy for Success: Focus On Being a Market Leader

Forget all that advice about diversifying, about being a one-stop shop, about being a Renaissance systems integrator, says Silicon Valley consultant Theresa Lina. Lina, who as an executive at Andersen Consulting helped launch its high-tech practice in 1988, says the best way to the top is to stand out and clearly differentiate yourself, establishing a unique, high-margin market position that can be sustained over time.

Lina bears listening to: The Andersen high-tech practice earned $13 million in revenue in 1988; operating under her principles, it now rakes in $1 billion. She left Andersen in 1992 and formed Lina Group Inc., a San Francisco-based consultancy focused on helping professional service providers gain market dominance. Among her clients are systems integrators, VARs, Internet Service Providers and Web integrators. What those companies share is a difficulty in setting themselves apart.

"Professional consulting firms need to narrow their focus, rather than try to be all things to all people," Lina, the company's president, says. "Everyone looks and sounds the same. It becomes difficult to differentiate yourself. The technology industry is full of me-tooism. We have a saying: You want to be a 'go-to,' not a 'me-too.' The industry is full of lemmings. Companies are starting to fall into the commodity trap, and when you start having to compete on price, you start having a hard time."

The big challenge, says Lina, is to make your company become the go-to source for a particular problem. "You need to shoot for true dominance," she says. It boils down to three actions: Focus on a specific market space and identify a common, mission-critical problem; develop a point of view; and develop a unique approach to the solution.

The problem, Lina found, is that most companies don't know how to set about accomplishing that three-pronged approach. Enter the Apollo Method for Market Dominance. Named for the space program that overcame numerous challenges and eventually succeeded in putting the first man on the moon, the Apollo method has four stages:

1) Launch: Find the unoccupied seat and plant yourself. Understand where the real needs of your customers are. Many companies are afraid to do this, fearing they will pick the wrong area to focus on. Do your homework thoroughly, advises Lina, and you'll pick the right area of concentration--and after that, there will be no worries. Develop and declare your point of view. Don't be all things to all people. For example, everyone wants to specialize in e-commerce, but that's too broad to be a specialization. In addition, she says, e-commerce will soon become as commoditized as client-server; it will soon become a part of everyone's business and become a given. But say you are a Web integrator focused on supply-chain management. You've identified a need for using the Web to enable easier procurement. "So you'd be out there talking about why procurement should be done on the Web to cut costs, etc.," says Lina. "You start pounding on a specific problem and then have a solution. The message is the problem; you're a pied piper of the problem...That way, you get identified as not talking in broad terms but, rather, specifically of how you're going to solve it."

2) Ignite: Fire up the market around your point of view. Create a sense of urgency. Meet with key influencers, including the media, to get visibility for your issue. Lina cites the success of San Mateo, Calif.-based Siebel Systems Inc. in taking SFA to a whole new level by working with trade show promoters, by publishing books and creating a buzz.

3) Navigate: Walk your talk. Deliver on your promises. If you can't deliver, you're not worth anything. You're not just creating perception; you're creating a reality.

4) Accelerate: Once you're a leader, you can't rest on your laurels. The me-toos are right behind you. Constantly monitor the marketplace. Be nimble and adjust properly. Develop a community of believers. Get that community to help you stay in front.