Living on the Fault Line: Managing for Shareholder Value in the Age of the Internet

by Geoffrey A. Moore

Book Overview

The fault line -- that dangerous, unstable seam in the economy where powerful innovations and savage competition meet and create market-shattering tremors. Every company lives on it; no manager can... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887308880
• ISBN13: 9780887308888
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Same message with new insights

"Living on the Fault Line" is an extension of Geoffrey Moore's previous books, "Crossing the Chasm" and "Inside the Tornado". It examines the various stages of a business, presents methods for managing shareholder value and creating sustainable competitive advantage, and begins to examine how cultural diversity can be used as a competitive strength. Although Moore does introduce business culture and the importance of culture management, his approach to competitive advantage continues to rely on stock price and information technology, distinguishing core and contextual processes, and understanding the impact of technology in causing market shifts. The book is well written and includes many useful diagrams and charts.With change increasing exponentially, we are living in an environment where understanding and dealing with change is increasingly difficult. While Moore's approach towards competition is traditional, he does provide tools for understanding the apparent chaos in today's environment.

The culmination of Moore's business framework thinking

Geoffrey's Moore's latest book should be required reading for all executives in the age of the Internet. Rather than filling out a theoretically weak book with numerous examples, or building a detailed theory which cannot be applied, Moore has produced a brilliant work of practical business theory. Drawing on and extending his work in Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, and The Gorilla Game, Moore looks at various stages in the development of businesses, how to manage for shareholder value, how to create and sustain competitive advantage, and how companies with diverse cultures can effectively overcome the innovator's dilemma. Any executive feeling threatened by the Internet, or wishing to take full advantage of discontinuous innovations, should read this book.

Great Framework for Understanding

Geoffrey Moore is the master at taking complex marketing questions and answering them with simple frameworks. These frameworks help you understand the forces at work in the market and help you make decisions about your own business.In "Living..." he continues this tradition. This book extends the concepts of the "Chasm" and "Tornado" books and uses these new concepts to address real world questions in large companies. He clearly answers questions like "Should this task be outsourced?", and "How should I align my line functions to bring a new product to market?"An essential read to a high tech marketer or leader.

Geoffrey Moore creates the "bible" for e-business

The Internet is having a profound impact on the ways companies conduct their business. Nowhere is this change more profound than with traditional companies who have been successful many years, now faced by threat of a new Internet business in their market. Start ups with incredible market caps have completely turned markets upside down, often rendering the old ways of doing business obsolete, almost overnight.In Living on the Fault Line, Geoffrey Moore presents an interesting premise: that because of the Internet, traditional businesses must play by a new set of rules, rules that are based on the technology adoption lifecycle that he originally presented in his first book, Crossing the Chasm. He aruges quite successfully that these these companies need to understand new market dynamics and shareholder value, which is based on competitive advantage over time discounted for risk, versus the quarterly report, which he argues gives a limited view of a company's performance. He also argues that the market valuations for some of these Internet companies are rational, and that shareholder value is the true metric of a company's performance. This section is particularly brillliant because it is understandable to people like me... my eyes usually glaze over with this stuff. Geoffrey makes it exciting, and understandable.And then he gets into the issues that prevent large established companies from dealing with new compeitition moving at Internet speed. And just like Crossing the Chasm, the author also offers strategies that companies need to consider to regain their competitive advantage and in effect, re-cross the chasm, which for many, had been done the first time many years and even decades or so ago.I believe that any person in business, whether they are in the Fortune 500 of today, or tomorrow, needs to read this book as Moore provides a language and framework that we all need to understand in order to be successful in the 'new economy.'

A 'must-read' from the messiah of hi-tech marketing

After Geoffrey Moore's Inside the Tornado, one never expected another such gem in such a short time period. It seems like Geoffrey Moore's Consulting experiences and insights related to the Internet economy are once again packaged 'wonderfully well' to deliver great value to all kinds of readers in the hi-tech world - product/service, marketing/strategy, ...Geoffrey's insights on how the Internet impacts the competitive landscape and changes the way one perceives value and value-creation are a definite "look into the future". How to integrate strategy and marketing with Information Technology to overcome potential chasms and tornadoes is depicted in the usual Moore style - plain and simple but crisp and captivating!