This means being competent enough to admit when it's time to augment existing skill sets or bring in another partner. Early category management efforts migrated toward a category captain model, but in some cases, a category consortium model might be more appropriate. If this industry was birthed in art, it will mature in science. The supermarket is a retail artifact of a more genteel age, an age when it was possible and even desirable to know all of one's neighbors and one's customers. But ours is a different age.
People live serial lives-moving constantly through adulthood, changing careers often.
As a society we lack the stable roots enjoyed by the generations that built American retailing. We no longer have the luxury of selling to our lifelong friends and neighbors. In such a climate, nothing is more critical than data. Good data is the fuel that drives effective category management. Given the customer count of the average Kroger or Wal-Mart, the ability to sell depends on the ability to 'know' a customer.