A small dent.  That's all that resulted from whacking the wood with a 6 pound maul as hard as I could.  Being nearly winter, I'm urgently trying to get all the wood split before the snows come.  Most logs yield to the force, splitting into neat chunks ready for stacking.  But take a curly-grained white oak and I give up after 7 or 8 swings at the darn thing and throw it on the pile whole.  Similarly entering markets with entrenched competitors usually gives the same result - you bounce right off and don't get any penetration.

So what can you do about this situation?  Often very appealing markets are right in front of you, and it is obvious that the customers would be much better off with your product.  Why can't you just go get a little bit of the market and grow from there?  You're not trying to knock out the market leader, just nibble a little away from the edge.  Sounds logical....except it doesn't work, and similar failed logic is applied time and again in markets with dominant players.

The main lesson is don't challenge the leader on their terms.  Here are a few other approaches that should give better results.

• Try an end around.  Look for opportunity just beyond the edge of the market, perhaps in adjacent segments.  After getting traction there, you can parlay that momentum towards the target with better chances of success.

• Try to see some gaps in the current offerings.  Maybe there is a portion of the customer's workflow that is underserved.  Focusing efforts on satisfying this may give you the sales you need to eventually challenge the leader.

• Like the resistant oak above, sometimes a bigger maul will do the trick.  There are 12 pounders that would have probably split the log on the first swing.  You can sometime use very large (aka expensive) efforts to get your products accepted in the market.  It's not the best approach, but if you absolutely must attack the leader, you need to use the 12 pounder.

• Find someone to lend a hand.  Partner with someone that is participating in the market and form a mutually beneficial relationship.  You will need to give up something to do this, but you will get into the fight and you'll have some success.

• Finally, maybe there are some totally novel approaches that you can create.  I have seen "firewood processors" where you load up whole 30 ft logs and out the end comes split firewood.  No need for mauls, chainsaws, and tired backs - just hydraulics and petrol (and $$, of course).

So when the best opportunity for your products happens to be the market governed by a potentate, put on your thinking cap and figure out some clever ways to get there.  Whatever you do, don't charge in expecting to take a little bit away.  Like the recalcitrant white oak, you will bounce right off.

EC BioIndex November 2009

• EC BioTools Index - A, ACCL, AFFX, BEC, BIO, BRKR, CALP, DNEX, HBIO, HLCS, ILMN, LIFE, LMNX, PKI, QGEN, SIAL, TMO, VARI, WAT
• EC BigPharma Index - JNJ, PFE, GSK, NVS, SNY, LUN, ABT, LLY, AZN, WYE, BMY, NVO, BAX, TEVA, KG, ROG.VX
• EB Biotech Index - AMGN, GENZ, BIIB, CEPH, GILD, BMRN, AMLN, IDXX, SEPR, OSIP, PDLI, CPHD, ALKS, REGN, VRTX, THRX, HGSI, SGMO, NKTR
• Prices are taken at the close of each month.  YTD is the year to date change taken from the end of December, 2008.