In 1991, management consultant and author Geoffrey A. Moore introduced the phrase “crossing the chasm” to the world of high-tech product marketing. His books “Crossing the Chasm” and “Inside the Tornado” subsequently became required reading in high-tech and not-so-high-tech companies alike.

The crossing-the-chasm buzz had its value: It provided a framework around which marketing action could coalesce. At the same time, it had the unfortunate consequence of emphasizing the product-adoption chasm —specifically, the gulf between early and mainstream markets — to the exclusion of five other, equally important chasms. All six chasms must be identified, understood and traversed if companies are to implement new technology successfully and achieve long-term success. (See “The Six Chasms.”)

The Chasm Within the Mind

In the fall of 1916, 25-year-old David Sarnoff, chief inspector of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America, penned a memo to the company’s vice president and general manager. As quoted in T. Lewis’ “Empire of the Air,” it read: “I have in mind a plan of development which would make radio a ‘household utility’ in the same sense as the piano or phonograph. … [A] radio telephone transmitter having a range of, say, 25 to 50 miles can be installed at a fixed point where the instrumental or vocal music or both are produced. … The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple ‘Radio Music Box’ and arranged for several different wavelengths. … It is not possible to estimate the total amount of business obtainable with this plan until it has been developed and actually tried out; but there are about 15 million families in the United States alone, and if only one million, or 7% of the total amount of families, thought well of the idea it would, at the figure mentioned, mean a gross business of about $75 million which should yield considerable revenue.”

Management’s response to Sarnoff ’s memo? Silence. Marconi’s senior management might be excused for ignoring Sarnoff’s memo in the absence of a working product, broadcasting system or value network (content creators, broadcasters, advertisers, radio and equipment manufacturers, and listeners) demonstrating the benefits of radio music boxes. Even if all those elements were in place, viable business models for the various value-network members did not yet exist. Moreover, Sarnoff’s forecasts notwithstanding, demand for the new product was uncertain. Worse yet, the new business might cannibalize Marconi’s telegraph activities, in which the company had made significant investments that