Watching how customers actually use a product provides much more reliable information than can be gleaned from a verbal interview or a focus group. 2 Thus,

A key metric of good management, in fact, is whether such clear and consistent values have permeated the organization. 6

Guessing the right strategy at the outset isn’t nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources (or having the relationships with trusting backers or investors) so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate toward a viable strateg

The HP project managers concede in retrospect that their most serious mistake in managing the Kittyhawk initiative was to act as if their forecasts about the market were right, rather than as if they were wrong.

Disruptive technologies bring to a market a very different value proposition than had been available previously. Generally, disruptive technologies underperform established products in mainstream markets. But they have other features that a few fringe (and generally new) customers value. Products based on disruptive technologies are typically cheap

What all sustaining technologies have In common is that they improve the performance of established products, along the dimensions of performance that mainstream customers in major markets have historically valued.

above, good management was the most powerful reason they failed to stay atop their industries. Precisely became these firms listened to their customers, invested aggressively in new technologies that would provide their customers more and better products of the sort they wanted, and because they carefully studied market trends and systematically al

disruptive technologies that may underperform today, relative to what users in the market demand, may be fully performance-competitive in that same market

The dilemmas posed to innovators by the conflicting demands of sustaining and disruptive technologies can be resolved. Managers must first understand what these intrinsic conflicts are. They then need to create a context in which each organization’s market position, economic structure, developmental capabilities, and values are sufficiently aligned