Across industries like health sciences, information technology, consumer entertainment, industrial automation, and financial services, the need to achieve rapid take-off and diffusion of new products and services is a central concern of CEOs and CMOs. Slow take-off delays return on investments, allows competitive entry, and hinders the development of consumer loyalty to brands and standards.

Based on his research, Professor Thomas S. Robertson provided guidelines for meeting rapid take-off objectives. His next practice ideas include a focus on the application alternatives rather than the technology; the need to pre-announce to customers; the value of partnering and creating alliances to create the dominant standard and to leverage network effects; and the need to manage the customer's adoption process. He shared his next practice ideas with examples from recent research on major global corporations.