“In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success.”
April 30, 2013 by Beth Temple
Wow! I can’t tell you how impressed I was about this amazing statement from Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, in response to the debacle that occurred last year after raising prices and splitting DVD from streaming.
It takes a lot of guts to not just wax over or ignore mistakes – but even more amazing, Continue Reading →
How G.E. is Thriving in the New Product Economy
April 11, 2013 by Beth Temple
One of the tenets of The New Product Economy is that big companies should make size an advantage. Continue Reading →
Will Facebook Home End up in Foreclosure?
April 09, 2013 by Beth Temple
Let me start by saying that based on my past experience launching new products: Facebook Home is likely to fail. I do not say this with malice, I’ve just seen a lot of new products come and go, and too many are no-go’s because in the process of wanting to build them companies skip over the most important step Continue Reading →
Aereo vs Broadasters in the New Product Economy
April 04, 2013 by Beth Temple
One company’s cannibalization is another company’s disruption. This is the conundrum of our time. Companies are hesitant to cannibalize their own business, which opens them up to others disrupting their business (think Blockbuster, Kodak). Continue Reading →
Getting a New Product Right
February 23, 2013 by Beth TempleIt gave me great pleasure to read a recent article in The New York Times outlining the process of Nickelodeon’s newest digital product – an iPad app for kids. Like any new product there were some surprising outcomes Continue Reading →
Don’t say Goodbye to Retail Yet!
February 01, 2013 by Beth TempleI disagree with Marc Andreessen’s recent proclamation about the death of retail. Continue Reading →
3 Reasons New Products Fail: Build-out
January 10, 2013 by Beth TempleThe last post focused on the 3 most likely reasons new products fail during the pre-build stage. You get it wrong from the beginning it is almost impossible to end up getting it right.
But even if you get that first part right – there are plenty of potholes to flatten your tires as you start the design and development stage. Continue Reading →
3 Reasons New Products Fail: Pre-build
January 08, 2013 by Beth TempleThe general wisdom is that most new products fail (you’ll see numbers between 75-95%). The odds are, sadly, against you. So it’s no wonder there is so much fear and trepidation around building new products. All this failure has high costs in money, resources and reputation. Continue Reading →
Lessons from The Daily
December 04, 2012 by Beth TempleLike many others, I was disappointed to read that News Corp was shutting down The Daily, it’s iPad only ‘newspaper’. Not just because they were a client – but also because I was (am) a big fan!
There are two key lessons about building new products that everyone can learn from what happened. Continue Reading →
Crossing the Business Adaptation ‘Chasm’
November 29, 2012 by Beth Temple
Yesterday I applied Moore’s ‘technology life cycle adoption’ thesis to business and found an inverse relationship. Today we’ll look at how to reverse that indicator line from top left down to bottom left up.
It requires creating a new series of stages for how a company should adapt to new technologies.
1) Early assessment. This is a creative investigative endeavor to find out who is doing what and determine how it will affect your business. At issue is how wide do you toss your net?
Example: The movie business should have been tracking the early goings-on in the music business – similar DRM issues, revenue models, and audiences were in play.
2) Early testing. Once you assess the players and the opportunities, start executing with small tests (either in partnerships or small build-outs).
Example: Early stages of testing that ABC engaged in with Hulu and iTunes.
3) Broaden offering: Now that you understand where the wins and the risks are – lean toward the wins – expanding the exposure, growing the usage base through adding to existing products, building new product(s), establishing new/expanded partnerships, altering business models.
Example: Amazon was brilliant at this – started with books, grew to CD’s and DVD’s and then became the place to shop for everything.
4) Market compatibility. At this stage you should be matching the needs of the market through business relevancy and revenue sustainability.
Example: The Economist’s early pay-wall and multiple platform distribution help them retain and grow subscribers.
The result is in the chart at the top of this post (the + indicates going in the positive direction).
Just like Moore’s chasm – this is not a 1-year effort – it is ongoing overtime. To remain relevant, businesses will need to return to assessment, testing, and broadening stages over and over again. Doing so will keep their chart heading in the right direction!