If you’re not number one, you’re in trouble. What are the factors that can make a brand a category king, or the creator of a new category? How can you shift business models, and ensure brand evolution? On this episode, Ray Wang talks category killers, growth turnaround and the source of new categories and innovation in technology.

New technologies make new solutions to old problems possible. Entrepreneurs and innovators have to be deeply steeped in both the problems and the new, emerging potential solutions. -Chris Lochhead

Takeaways

At the start of the show Ray shared, the core traits of leadership and how people develop a dynamic leadership style. He also shared his story, and how he built his own business, and the importance of having grit. We also talked about the importance of being number 1 in a category, and why that has to do with having an evolving business model. Towards the end of the show, we discussed the relationship between solving problems and emerging new technologies.

Ray also shared insights on:

We’re in a winner-take-all world. If you don’t have a brand and a very defined mission, and you’re not a category king, you cannot be number one. When you’re not number one you won’t have the margins, the profit for product and you can’t command talent. New categories are created and old categories are redesigned when problems are solved. To truly stay on the pulse of new innovations, you have to answer the customer’s problem first. Ultimately you’re trying to solve a problem that enough people have, and take that to market.

Guest Bio

Ray Wang is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley based Constellation Research, Inc.  He's also the author of the popular business strategy and technology  blog "A Software Insider’s Point of View". With viewership in the 10's of millions of page views a year,