Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets - Hardcover

by Al Ramadan (Author), Dave Peterson (Author), Christopher Lochhead (Author)

The founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm reveal a groundbreaking business strategy called category design.

Winning today isn't about beating the competition at the old game. It's about inventing a whole new game--defining a new market category, developing it, and achieving market domination over time. You can't build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you're going to lose.

In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of "category kings"--the legendary startups and companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA--that give us new ways of living, thinking or doing business, often solving problems we didn't know we had.

In Play Bigger, the authors assemble their findings to introduce the new discipline of category design. By applying this framework, companies can unlock explosive business growth, create new demand where none existed, and condition customers' brains so they change their expectations and buying habits. While this discipline defines the tech industry, it applies to every kind of industry and even to personal careers.

Crossing the Chasm revolutionized how we think about new products in an existing market. The Innovator's Dilemma taught us about disrupting an aging market. Now, Play Bigger is transforming business once again, showing us how to create the market itself.

This playbook for entrepreneurs, founders, and executives reveals:

• A New Business Strategy: Learn the discipline of category design, a proven framework for building a legendary business that creates and dominates its own market.
• The Category King Playbook: Discover why companies that create new categories--the "category kings"--capture over 76% of their market's value, and how you can become one.
• Different is Greater than Better: Understand the critical mistake most companies make: focusing on having the "best" product while losing to competitors who build a "different" and legendary category.
• A Guide to Entrepreneurship: Whether you're a founder of a new startup or an executive in a Fortune 500 company, learn the strategies used by Silicon Valley's most successful companies to create new demand and redefine industries.

Front Jacket

What do Facebook, Google, Salesforce.com, Uber, VMware, Netflix, IKEA, Birds Eye, 5-hour Energy, and Pixar have in common?

In what way does Apple work like the 165-year-old glass company, Corning?

How do you explain why some start-ups last and build value while others shoot up and then flame out?

Why was Elvis not just the King, but a category king?

The key to each has to do with creating, developing, and dominating new categories of products and services.

Stick around and we'll tell you how that's done.

Winning today isn't about beating the competition at the old game. It's about inventing a whole new game--defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can't build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you're going to lose.

In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of "category kings"--companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA that give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, often solving problems we didn't know we had.

It's not about disruption anymore--it's about creation. Category kings are the explosive and enduring companies that create value over time by opening up a category with vast potential and setting themselves up to control the majority of it. Category kings take seventy to eighty percent of the category's economics. Category kings become famous brands because they become the symbol of the whole category--think Xerox, Google, Uber. A category king is almost impossible to challenge. These are the companies that shape our lives and alter the future. They play bigger than other companies.

In Play Bigger, the authors assemble their findings to introduce the new discipline of category design. By applying category design, companies can create new demand where none existed, conditioning customers' brains to change expectations and buying habits. While this discipline is crucial in the tech industry, it applies to every kind of industry and even to personal careers.

Back Jacket

What do Facebook, Google, Salesforce.com, Uber, VMware, Netflix, IKEA, Birds Eye, 5-hour Energy, and Pixar have in common?

In what way does Apple work like the 165-year-old glass company, Corning?

How do you explain why some start-ups last and build value while others shoot up and then flame out?

Why was Elvis not just the King, but a category king?

The key to each has to do with creating, developing, and dominating new categories of products and services.

Stick around and we'll tell you how that's done.

Winning today isn't about beating the competition at the old game. It's about inventing a whole new game--defining a new market category, developing it, and dominating it over time. You can't build a legendary company without building a legendary category. If you think that having the best product is all it takes to win, you're going to lose.

In this farsighted, pioneering guide, the founders of Silicon Valley advisory firm Play Bigger rely on data analysis and interviews to understand the inner workings of "category kings"--companies such as Amazon, Salesforce, Uber, and IKEA that give us new ways of living, thinking, or doing business, often solving problems we didn't know we had.

It's not about disruption anymore--it's about creation. Category kings are the explosive and enduring companies that create value over time by opening up a category with vast potential and setting themselves up to control the majority of it. Category kings take seventy to eighty percent of the category's economics. Category kings become famous brands because they become the symbol of the whole category--think Xerox, Google, Uber. A category king is almost impossible to challenge. These are the companies that shape our lives and alter the future. They play bigger than other companies.

In Play Bigger, the authors assemble their findings to introduce the new discipline of category design. By applying category design, companies can create new demand where none existed, conditioning customers' brains to change expectations and buying habits. While this discipline is crucial in the tech industry, it applies to every kind of industry and even to personal careers.