Ecological Niche: Specialty Skill Strategy

To attain a specialty niche always requires something new, something added, something that is genuine innovation. (...) Timing is of the essence in establishing a specialty skill niche. It has to be done at the very beginning of a new industry, a new custom, a new market, a new trend. (...) Once such a company has attained its controlling position in its specialty skill niche, it has to retain it. Unlike the toll-gate companies, theirs is a fairly large niche, yet it is still unique. It was obtained by developing high skill at a very early time. (...) The business that establishes itself in a specialty skill niche is therefore unlikely to be threatened by its costumers or by its suppliers. Neither of them really wants to get into something that is so alien in skill and in temperament. (...) A business at a specialty skill business must constantly work on improving its own skill. (...) While the specialty skill niche has unique advantages, it also has severe limitations. One is that it inflicts tunnel vision on its occupants. (...) A second is that the business is usually dependent on somebody else to bring his product or service to market. (...) Finally, the greatest danger (...) is for the specialty to cease being a specialty and to become universal.

The Essential Drucker
Peter F. Drucker
Collins Business (2005)