There are three ways that marketers traditionally think about market leadership:

• Market share (volume)
• Market share (value)
• Profitability

So if you have the largest market share by volume, you can claim to be a market leader. Same with value. Of all these, we think that being most profitable is also the most significant of these traditional measures of market leadership. (There is no point selling without making money!).

But there are far more interesting ways of thinking about leadership. Here are some definitions:

"Leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less." John C Maxwell 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

And our favorite:

"The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers." Peter Drucker The Leader of the Future

A beautiful definition, and put that way, any company can be a market leader. You don't have to be the biggest or the most profitable, you simply have to have followers. What is required to have followers? In his book 'Offensive Marketing' (subtitled 'How to make competitors followers'), Hugh Davidson says: "… it involves aiming to innovate every major new development in a market, from the humdrum accomplishment of being first in with a new larger size, to the heady success of breaking through with a totally new product or service."

Looked at this way, market leadership does not require huge financial or material resources. It requires human capital, ideas, innovation, and determination. The resources lie within yourself if you choose to lead your market.