What the company staff interpreted as a ramp in sales leading smoothly “up the curve” was in fact an initial blip—what we will be calling the early market—and not the first indications of an emerging mainstream market. The company failed because its managers were unable to recognize that there is something fundamentally different between a sale to an early adopter and a sale to the early majority, even when the company name on the check reads the same. Thus, at a time of greatest peril, when the company was just entering the chasm, its leaders held high expectations rather than modest ones,
...more
