How to conquer and retain
a podium position!

Many organizations are following Amazon’s lead and (also) setting themselves up as an online or platform service. Moreover, companies copy each other’s offerings and innovations at lightning speed. As a result, everything starts to look alike and choices become increasingly difficult. This development, typical of the Western supply chain economy, is called the ‘commodification’ of supply.

At the same time, the risk of Black Swans is increasing. Increasingly, unexpected and far-reaching events such as the Corona crisis will be able to affect your business enormously. This is a consequence of the growth of the world population and international trade, the depletion of natural resources, climate change and political instability.

If you want to be successful tomorrow, the day after and in the future in this challenging market context, you must strive for a podium position in your market.

With its hotel concept, the Burj al Arab in Dubai has created a unique, successful product category in the premium-plus segment. It was hailed by the trade press as the world’s first 7-Star hotel. In doing so, it became a reference brand and took a big lead over the followers who are slowly but surely emerging in this new segment.

If you want to occupy a podium position in your market in the short and long term, it is essential that, like the Burj al Arab, you are remarkable and incomparable. As a brand, with your offer and with your people. The challenge is to create your own unique market segment and customer base; your own ‘Market of One’.

The example of the Burj al Arab hotel as described in the book illustrates well how you can do that with a complete business model. The many other examples, the 7-Star Framework and its approach show you how to do this for any business model, product or service. This works on both the premium and discount side of the market, but not in the middle ground. Because there you are not only in the grip of a downward price spiral but also of competition from the lower and or upper end of the market.