Includes bibliographical references (p. [315]-330) and index.

Business professors Gerard Tellis and Peter Golder draw powerful and surprising conclusions from their years of in-depth research on market entry and new product markets. Case studies of market leaders including Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Fede ral Express, Procter & Gamble, and Charles Schwab, along with analyses of archival reports, show how five key drivers--vision of the mass market, managerial persistence, relentless innovation, financial commitment, and asset leverage--have remained remarkably similar from the nineteenth century to today. The authors contrast the behavior of firms that endured as leaders with those that had as good as or a better chance to do the same. And, most importantly, they show how firms today can follow the examples of long-term market leaders to seize substantially greater market share regardless of the cost or complexity of their products.