Being First Among Equals

Market leader?

“Market leader.”

It is one of those phrases that appears so often in strategy discussions that we rarely stop to question it.

The assumption is simple enough. If you are not aiming to become the market leader, what exactly are you aiming for?

For a long time, that logic made sense.

Markets were relatively stable. Categories evolved slowly. Competitive positions could be built and defended over years, sometimes decades. Becoming the leader was both a sensible ambition and a useful measure of success.

I am not entirely sure that remains true.

Particularly in markets being reshaped by AI.

When leadership becomes a snapshot

Categories seem to be appearing and disappearing at a pace that feels increasingly difficult to keep up with. New competitors emerge from unexpected places. Customer expectations shift faster than organizations can respond. What looked differentiated twelve months ago often looks like table stakes today.

In such an environment, market leadership feels less like a destination and more like a temporary snapshot.

What if becoming the market leader is not the most useful objective?

What if the more relevant objective is becoming the first credible choice?

The distinction sounds subtle, but I suspect it is significant.

The battle before comparison

Customers rarely begin their buying journey by identifying the market leader.

They begin by identifying who deserves consideration.

Who understands their problem. Who appears relevant. Who feels credible. Who comes to mind.

Only later do they begin comparing alternatives.

In other words, the battle for consideration is often won long before the battle for market share begins.

Why this matters for startups and SMEs

That observation feels particularly relevant for startups and SMEs.

Historically, larger organizations enjoyed a natural advantage. Size was often interpreted as capability. Capability was interpreted as lower risk. And lower risk frequently influenced buying decisions.

The assumption that only large enterprises were capable of serving enterprise customers was rarely challenged.

AI appears to be changing that equation.

Many of the capabilities that once required large teams, significant infrastructure, specialist resources and years of accumulated investment are becoming increasingly accessible. AI is acting as a leveller, allowing smaller firms to punch far above their weight.

This does not mean scale no longer matters. It does.

But scale is no longer the only signal of capability.

A different set of customer questions

Increasingly, customers are evaluating potential partners through a different lens.

• Who understands my business?
• Who understands my challenges?
• Who can identify where AI can create meaningful value?
• Who can help me improve outcomes rather than simply implement technology?
• Who understands my context well enough to know where optimisation is possible and where it is not?

These are very different questions from: “Who is the largest provider?” or “Who has the biggest delivery team?”

Relevance before size

For smaller organizations, this creates an opportunity that did not exist in quite the same way before.

Not an opportunity to become larger than everyone else.

But an opportunity to become more relevant than everyone else.

To occupy a distinctive place in the minds of the customers they serve.

That, at its heart, is what positioning attempts to do.

Not convince the market that you are the best. Not convince everyone that you are different.

Simply ensure that when a relevant need emerges, you are thought of before you are compared.

First among equals

Perhaps that is what being first among equals really means.

Not leadership through size. Not leadership through volume.

But leadership through relevance.

In expanding markets, there may be room for many successful participants.

The more interesting question is not whether you can become number one.

It is whether your ideal customer thinks of you before they think of somebody else.

If they need your services/product tomorrow, would your organization be among the first names that comes to their mind?

Irshad Syed
Partner, Slingshot