Читать книгу Digital Disciplines - Wiersema Fred - Страница 19

Treacy and Wiersema defined product leadership as “offering customers leading-edge products and services that consistently enhance the customer's use or application of the product, thereby making rivals' goods obsolete.”42 They offer the examples of Nike, which outran Adidas in footwear, and Johnson & Johnson's Vistakon unit, which clearly saw its way through to beating competitors to market with the first disposable contact lenses. Importantly, it is not just the invention or design of innovative products at which such companies excel, but also rapid product introduction processes, fast decision making, and an ability to experiment and adjust quickly during the product introduction process.

Product leaders, in Treacy and Wiersema's view, are those companies that continuously innovate. They referred to Intel. Today, we would also probably consider Apple as an iconic example of continuous market-disrupting innovation: iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, the Retina Display, the MacBook Air, the iPad, and the Apple Watch come to mind, and perhaps someday the iCar. They propose that for product leaders, competition is not about price, but about performance. Picture a Lamborghini dealer trying to win a wealthy customer's business from a Ferrari dealer. She will not argue that the Lamborghini costs $20,000 less than the Ferrari nor that it's easier to select trim colors over the web. Instead, she will focus on more exclusive leather seats, a different center of gravity, greater sex appeal, or a faster 0 to 60 time.

Treacy and Wiersema illustrated the concept of product leadership primarily through the leading product manufacturers of the time such as Glaxo, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Nike, and Sony. But they intended for the concept to apply equally to services, and highlighted companies such as Disney.