Pip Coburn is a technology investment guru who wrote a whole book on how technology companies usually fail and how the successful ones succeed. I recommend this book to anyone trying to sell, create or implement alternative technology.
The book is called The Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn. It is all about why high technology products fail most of the time. Alternative energy fits in this bucket. And, according to this book, there are two main questions that every product should answer.
Is the problem the product is trying to solve a problem for me? In other words, if you want to use fewer fossil fuels because it is better for the environment or if it is easier on your pocketbook, the solar power may be the right answer for you.
But there is another question: How painful do I think it will be for me to switch over to this new technology? The pain could be money, aesthetics, learning something else that is complicated, or just having to maintain something else.
Electricity from the utility company is incredibly pain free. You call them up, start the service and BANG. You have electricity. That is not always the perceived case with solar or wind. “It’ll be cloudy for three weeks and then what?”
The big question is really how painful is it to try something new?
Pip Coburn’s book is a fun, intriguing, thought-provoking read. And I think very useful for all the sellers of new technology out there.
