Review of Zero Time

In Zero Time, Crossing the Chasm, Yeh, Pearlson, and Kozmetsky make the argument that managers that get ahead of trends and blaze a new path in their respective industries help their companies become market leaders. These types of managers are known as Zero Time leaders. In essence, Zero Time leaders are able to do this by fundamentally understanding their customers’ needs and wants while instantaneously implementing a strategy. In doing so, Zero Time leaders create intense customer loyalty and retain enduring market share. In other words, Zero Time managers create a sustainable competitive advantage by gaining comprehensive customer insight, leading to highly valued products and services. This allows Zero Time managers’ companies to “cross the chasm” and attain enviable market leadership positions within their respective industries. There have been a number of prime examples of Zero Time managers, including Henry Ford, Herb Kelleher, and Steve Jobs.

Henry Ford

Prior to Henry Ford, automobiles were luxury items that only the wealthy could afford. At the time, horses were the prime mode of transportation. Due to the massive amounts of horses needed to provide transportation, the world was dealing with a horse manure crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century. Henry Ford could see growing latent demand for a new prime mode of transportation. To address this, Henry Ford sought to make automobiles affordable enough for mass appeal. By applying assembly line processes to the automobile, Henry Ford was able to develop a basic, “no frills” automobile that ordinary people could afford. Henry Ford was the quintessential Zero Time leader because he was able to identify customer needs for a new mode of primary transportation and was able to meet those needs by driving down manufacturing costs low enough to develop an affordable automobile. In doing so, he fundamentally transformed the world.