Japan has historically excelled at world class manufacturing .  It’s a hardly disputed fact that no other country matches this amazing capability.  Manufacturing lends itself to incremental improvement through quality principles like kaizen, decentralized shop floor decision-making, and keiretsu-based value chains… manufacturing traits embraced and optimized by Japan’s large companies. However, what worked exceptionally well from 1970-1989 in driving Japan’s economic miracle  and prosperity faltered with the bursting of the “Nikkei Bubble” in 1990.  What happened?

Most successful intros of innovative products or services -- into key target markets -- have been driven by a myriad of factors: disciplined approach, great timing, flawless execution, etc.  Yet many other breakthrough solutions … often 70-80% ... fail within 6 to 12 months of launch.  What then, might account for the different outcomes?  Certainly, the products/services themselves might not have been well considered or engineered, but in many cases, it was the disruptive nature of the products that led to their downfall -- a downfall that might have been prevented with a more systematic and market-centric approach.

When I do workshops with clients to help them find a way of #CrossingTheChasm, the most common phrase I hear is "but that's too small of a segment."

Sports teams have one for each game. Theatre companies have one for each production. Political parties have one for each campaign. And high-tech companies...well, not so fast. What are we talking about? Playbooks. Their purpose: to coordinate a group of autonomous individuals, performing a complex activity, to achieve a predetermined and gratifying result. 

At a recent Churchill Club meeting my colleague and Chasm Institute Chairman Geoffrey Moore interviewed Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer about the business of making and selling their uber-branded luxury automobiles. One of the topics of conversation was how Aston Martin did segmentation. In a nutshell, they created "personas" representing the ideal buyer for each of their luxury models, all of which support the overall branding concept of "power, beauty, soul."

This post originally appeared on PhilipLay.com.

Like most years, 2014 has gone by in a flash, it seems. But like many years before it, it will leave its own mark on the development of new markets and tech businesses as well as the decline of others. Below is a list of my personal Top 20 trends and disruptions in terms of their significance this year, and for 2015 and beyond. It should come as no surprise that, to put it mildly, my Top 20 draws on some of the companies and topics I covered in posts during the year, because these represent themes and issues that I was able to explore in some detail

Last month I posted an article titled “Landgrab Economics – Making Sense of the Facebook-WhatsApp Deal” to try to explain, among other things, the wild valuations and bewildering events that occur in consumer-focused cloud businesses that are in mass-market hyper-growth mode. My specific objective with regard to the Facebook-WhatsApp deal was to help readers judge whether the deal made sense, particularly at the outsized valuation involved.

The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has come and gone. Vendors demonstrated how wearables, 4K OLED TVs, and 3-D printing, among many other categories, would change our lives. And no doubt one day some of them will. But not so fast. Lots of cool stuff, but for some categories, mass consumer adoption lies further down the road. Although these "consumer" products are being launched at the CES, in order to cross the chasm many of these are in reality going to be selling to business for some time to come. The Technology Adoption Life Cycle (TALC) can serve as a compass for how to navigate the waters of both consumer and business adoption. For disruptive innovations, consumer adoption may eventually happen, but only after the category crosses the chasm in business.

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Influencers. Follow Geoffrey Moore on LinkedIn.

In the blog prior to this one, I outlined seven things I thought were not only new but in a way that impacts the application of the crossing the chasm market development model. In this blog, I want to provide a counterbalance to that and present seven things I believe have not changed.

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Influencers. Follow Geoffrey Moore on LinkedIn.

January 28 is the publication date for the third edition of Crossing the Chasm. As with the second edition, i have worked hard to preserve the original argument largely intact. The big change is all new case examples referencing companies who crossed the chasm sometime in the past two years. This should make the book a bit more accessible to the current generation of entrepreneurs and perhaps a fun reread for those looking for a refresh.