Inside the Tornado: Amazon.ca: Books

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

First Sentence
At the beginning of The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and Toto are caught up inside a tornado, swept away from their mundane world of Kansas, and deposited into the marvelous land of Oz. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

strategy(3)

business model(2)

design(2)

communications(1)

creativity(1)

design thinking(1)

management consulting(1)

michael porter(1)

organization(1)

planning(1)

Customer Reviews

31 Reviews

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Marketing and business strengths, but "people" holes, April 11 2004

By

Lars Bergstrom "LarsBerg" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Inside Tornado (Paperback)

Beyond the previous Chasm book, there's a great deal of additional depth in how to make the transition with your business to get your products out to a wider range of people. He also introduced the idea of companies that effectively "live" in one part of the adoption phase or another, not dominating it, but rather living off the share that the market implicitly either wants to give to another competitor to keep a diverse environment or because they're the low-cost clone alternative.

Like another reviewer, I found the gorilla / chimp / monkey metaphor a bit much, though primarily because the "gorilla company" metaphor is used in a slightly different way in the real world. My biggest concern was with the people issues; there's a lot of discussion around how to transition your company from one stage to another and how that will affect the various roles, rewards the people in those roles should expect, and even the type of work those people should be doing. I don't think -- especially for companies as people-based as technology companies -- he spends enough time talking about how you handle those issues, set expectations, and actually lead your company through these sorts of changes. Academically, I could see how he was saying to transform the company over time. Practically, though, I couldn't see how some of his messages could be delivered well. Especially to the engineers working on products.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars I don't think we are in Kansas anymore, Toto, Oct 31 2002

By

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Inside Tornado (Paperback)

This was a groundbreaking book for many readers, who grew up in the pre-Silicon Valley boom days. How could Intel, Microsoft and other high-tech giants seize so much revenue, so fast? What were their marketing secrets and how can you apply them if you are in a new technology business? These are good questions and the description of how the successful companies stayed ahead of their competitors is educational. The rules look simple:
1. Just ship
2. Expand your distribution channels (and leave none unprotected)
3. Drive to the next lowest price point.

To me, this is more like staying ahead of the wave in surfing rather than riding a tornado, but whatever the metaphor, these are accurate descriptions of how high growth companies kept their products rolling and revenues coming in during high-demand times.

But do any of these rules apply to staying ahead of the competition during the lean times? Where have the tornados dropped everyone during the inevitable slowdown after a long, strong period of growth? Look at HP--who drove these rules to high success with the laser and deskjets and unbeknownst to many, took the lead in the home PC market too before the recession hit. Now, when spending on technology has been frozen by corporations seeking to hold costs down during the downturn, how do any of the marketing rules set out by Moore apply?

Well, the author points out that one has to be alert to when a new tornado is coming, though that is difficult. Now, when companies are slowing down is when technology developments in the skunk works are allowed to flourish; R&D has more time to perfect new technologies when there is little pressure to get out in a heated marketplace. Sooner or later, then next tornado is coming and the companies that are ready with strategic partnerships, competitive advantage, proper "bowling pin" positioning of product will profit. Right now may be the Year of the Monkey ("monkeys" compete on low price and low overhead) but the fundamentals have not changed for the next wave of a technology boom.

I like this book for looking at the fundamentals of companies who will be up and coming in the next recovery period, and for setting up marketing strategies for new products we are developing in house at our firm. Who has the best in-house R&D? What are the coming new technologies? Who's positioned to profit--look at the rules put forth in "Inside the Tornado" and see if you can make any predictions.

Recommended reading.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars Pure High-Tech marketing, Sep 11 2002

By

Aleksandar (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Inside Tornado (Paperback)

'Crossing the Chasm' and 'Inside the Tornado' explain high-tech marketing strategies and product/technology life cycle. In the 90s, some of the most successful high-tech companies could be distinguished by their marketing strategies. Standard approach to marketing might be fine for other industries, but it has less chance of succeeding in high-tech industry. 'Crossing the Chasm' refers to product's acceptance by mass market. Typical product adaptation cycle would go through various phases that include: innovators (very narrow market), early adopters, (much larger than innovators, but still nothing major), early majority (this is where you want your product to get), late majority (still huge market), and laggards. Now, in high-tech world, there is a chasm between early adopters and early majority. It takes different approach to cross that chasm and get accepted by early majority.
Once you are on the other side of the chasm, be prepare for the 'tornado' phase. Your product/technology will take off with enormous power driven by huge market. You don't want to be at the point where market demand surpasses your supply. At this point your company can grow at hyper growth rate and gigantic revenues can be generated. We have seen this before so many times and some of the examples (Dell, MS, Oracle, Apple, etc...) are known to everybody.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 31 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 46 reviews 4.2 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Is It Still Useful?
Notwithstanding its well-written words, the dot-bomb bubble has clearly indicated high-technology may not quite be the donkey's braying. Read more

Published on Aug 24 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Tech Marketing Insight
Ever wonder why so many innovative products never have the commercial success that the innovation deserves? Read more

Published on April 1 2002 by A. Valentine