Kevin Maney – Category Design – The Key to Competitive Advantage

Becoming Preferred

SEASON: 3 EPISODE: 10

Episode Overview:

Most businesses just try to be better than their competitors, constantly fighting for every bit of marketshare.

If you are looking to stand out from the competition and authentically define, develop, and ultimately dominate a new category of business, you’ll need to answer the questions, “What’s the problem you solve?”, “What solution must exist?”, and “Why are you that solution?”

So if you are looking to dominate your market, then you are going to enjoy my conversation with bestselling author and award-winning columnist, Kevin Maney.

Guest Bio:

Kevin Maney is co-author of Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets and has been a bestselling author and award-winning columnist writing about technology for three decades which allows Kevin to bring broad and deep context to Category Design conversations.

Kevin co-authored his most recent book Intended Consequences. He also authored The Two-Second Advantage (a 2011 New York Times best seller), Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don't, and The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson Sr. and the Making of IBM.

Kevin has written for Newsweek, Fortune, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Conde Nast Portfolio, The New York Times and USA Today. Kevin has also appeared frequently on television and radio, including CNN, CBS Sunday Morning and NPR.

Resource Links:

• Website: https://www.categorydesignadvisors.com/the-experts/
• Product Link: https://www.categorydesignadvisors.com/resources/

Insight Gold Timestamps:

02:39 One of the great accidental career moves of all time

04:04 All of those interviews and all that time with these companies

06:11 Why would you not want to do everything you could

09:09 Category and category design

11:44 It's kind of an inside-out look at strategy

12:42 Instead of calling it a sports bar, she calls it The Sports Bra

14:43 Businesses operate their businesses for their convenience

16:13 They think about the problem to solve first

17:53 Now that you understand that that's a problem, I have a solution for you

22:12 Deep sales

23:54 If you're in a space with a clear category winner….

26:48 Can both strategies work at the same time?

28:33 What's the first step in the category design consultation process?

34:04 What's the enemy of the innovation?

35:36 So many CEOs fail at telling people why they need what they're making

37:19 Eat your lunch before the competition does

39:42 The book is called Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets

Connect Socially:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/categorydesign/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CategoryDesign

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cd_advisors

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/categorydesign/

Email: [e-mail]

Sponsors:

Rainmaker Digital Solutions: https://www.rainmakerdigitalsolutions.com/

Resources: https://becomingpreferred-podcast.com/resources/

Next Episode: Grow your Business Without Burning Out with Grant Muller!