Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Brief article - Book review

Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at the Right Time. By Jackie Fenn and Mark Rasinko. Harvard Business School Press, 272 pages. $29.95.

This smartly conceived and well-executed book looks closely at a dismaying phenomenon in corporate strategy: the way galvanizing new technologies or products are met with over-inflated expectations, subsequent disillusionment and--perhaps far later--eventual assimilation.

The result of course, can be disastrous as companies that latch onto the hype go through a "trough of disillusionment" before the "slope of enlightenment" gives way to a "plateau of productivity." Not surprisingly, many companies abandon the product or concept when the disillusionment starts to weigh heavy on resources and results.

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