Inside the Tornado

"The market forces generated by _discontinuous innovations_ . . . have been termed _paradigm shifts_. These shifts begin with the appearance of a new category of product that incorporates breakthrough technology enabling unprecedented benefits."

"High tech can be seen not only as a sector of interest in its own right but also as a crucible in which a whole new class of business strategies are being born."

"Virtually all contemporary thinking about high-tech marketing strategy has its roots in a model which grew out of social research begun in the late 1950s about how communities respond to _discontinuous innovations_."

"Inside the Tornado is focused on mapping the marketplace beyond the chasm. It focuses on three subsequent stages in the life-cycle model."

"To transition now to a general purpose whole product, which a tornado market requires, entails considerable additional work, both inside your own company and in recruiting a much larger set of partners and allies."

"If tornadoes are destructive, they are also creative, generating new wealth where none was present before."

"In chaotic situations, the first source of order and security is a centralizing dominating power."

"The basic principles [for managing partners and allies inside the tornado] are as simple as they are draconian."

"Continuous innovation favors market leaders, while discontinuous innovation favors market challengers."

"Over the last two decades, high-tech marketing has left an enormous amount of money on the table by racing away from Main Street well in advance of the next tornado's arrival."

"The goal on Main Street is to maximize the financial yield from your installed base."

"Dramatic improvements in end-user capabilities are the accelerator that drives technology adoption, just as paradigm shock is the brake."

"To cross the chasm and gain acceptance with pragmatist customers, vendors must institutionalize a whole product, initially for a specific niche of customers."

"The initial question to ask is, are we partnering on a single revenue opportunity, partnering for a potential revenue stream, or partnering to capture market leadership?"

"Be first, because there is no second prize."

"Positioning is primarily about the place we occupy within two interrelated systems, both of which predate our existence, and both of which can get along just fine without us."

"The more market segments we can have under our belt before the tornado hits, the better our starting position."