Revolutionary companies invariably are intensely market-facing.  They perceive that customers could and should get a much better deal than any that are presently being offered. They may identify quality or performance problems with existing products, or they may see ways of delivering products of similar quality at much lower prices.  In essence, they believe that incumbent suppliers have become inward-facing and self-serving, comfortably complacent rather than dedicated to improving the lot of the customer.  Upon entering the market, they almost invariably position themselves as “champions of the people,” as luminaries striving for a much better deal for customers.

Jim Koch of the Boston Beer Company, for example, championed the cause of flavorful, high-quality beers brewed in the United States using traditional methods, with no artificial additives and only the finest ingredients.  His starting position was to characterize the U.S. beer market of the early 1980s as having settled down into dull uniformity, dominated by mass-market brewers such as Miller and Anheuser-Busch, with the only real alternative to blandness being provided by imported foreign beers.  The launch of Sam Adams in 1984 as a top-quality “independent” U.S.-brewed lager not only put Boston Beer on the corporate map, but also triggered the microbrewery revolution that transformed the image of beer drinking in the United States.  The company’s success demonstrated that there was a ready market for premium domestic brands – offering top quality at high prices – and in the process it extended the social reach of beer drinking.  There are now hundreds of microbreweries in the United States, inspiring the big brewers – domestic and foreign alike – to respond creatively to the challenge of rising customer expectations.  Boston Beer is one of many great revolutionaries – Dyson, IKEA, jetBlue are others – that have created breakout strategies that are models for managers to study, and learn from.  In Breakout Strategy, we dissect their game plans, and provide step-by-step tools on how to construct your own breakout strategy that can meet your aspirations for changing the rules and winning.