Rethinking Crossing the Chasm
Alex Iskold at the ReadWriteWeb has cast another look at Geoffrey Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm”. The concept has been at the cornerstone of a lot of technology thinking. Even John O’Hara’s book “Commercialising Innovation” is heavily based on it. Alex has hit the nail on the head by highlighting the following problem …
The problem is that compared to a few years ago, the speed with which new technologies are coming to the market has increased dramatically. All these technologies are aimed at the early adopters. And they love it and they try it. But the question is what happens when your early adopters run off to play with a new great thing before you have a chance to take your technology mainstream?
Yesterday’s Friendster is today’s MySpace and tomorrow’s Facebook.
This is actually nothing new, Clayton Christensen’s “Innovator’s Dilemma” has a case study of the disk drive industry and shows how the disruptive innovations in the disk technology often left the current market leaders in the dust.
What is an entrepreneur to do ????