Book Review: Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway

Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison was written by Joe Calloway who is a consultant on employee engagement and performance. He has many world-renowned clients such as newspapers in Sweden, hotels in Great Britain, BMW, and IBM. Joe is a frequent speaker on business trends and has been inducted into the International Speakers Hall of Fame. You can find more about Joe at www.JoeCalloway.com.

In Joe’s book, he redefines competition by sharing lessons on how to differentiate a business in a marketplace of commodities.  Rather than striving to be a leader in your industry, Joe suggests that you should create a different category and be the only one in it. Therefore, your firm becomes a category of one.

The book is broken up into the following chapters:

Chapter 1: We Just Started to Go
Chapter 2: What’s Your Story?
Chapter 3: Success Means You Know What Used to Work
Chapter 4: The Commodity Trap
Chapter 5: Your Brand Is Everything
Chapter 6: The Three Rules
Chapter 7: The New Customer Reality
Chapter 8: Tiebreakers
Chapter 9: Case Study: Tractor Supply Company
Chapter 10: The Future of Category of One

Throughout the book, Joe discusses how firms such as Zappos, Apple, Netlfix, and In-N-Out Burger have become category of one companies. All of these firms have done something right because they consistently beat out their competition. In fact, they are in a category of their own.

According to the author, all category of one companies have common threads that make them very successful. Regardless of size or industry, these firms exist everywhere.  Their success can be attributed to the way they do what they do.

Here are a few of the common threads:

• Make a conscious decision to act a certain way
• Have a clear sense of who you are
• Willingness to let go of what used to work
• Your brand is everything

To take it a step further, Joe defines the three rules of Category of One companies as:

1. Know more about your customers than anyone else does.
2. Get closer to the customer than anyone else.
3. Emotionally connect with the customer better than anyone else.

Becoming a Category of One: How Extraordinary Companies Transcend Commodity and Defy Comparison is a good book to read if you want to learn how to take your business to the next level and move past your competition. The author shares over 20 years worth of experience studying firms so he understands what it takes.

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Comments

[Bob Turner]

Jason,

It's an interesting point of view.Thanks for the book review!

Bob

[Loveeasy]

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