Exploiting the Market gap through innovation

Interesting interview from Charles Geschke on his life at Adobe....http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2038

Amazing to know that this 4th largest IT products company was the first to pioneer freeware with Adobe much before the Linux of the world. Charles cites of how Microsoft has bullied its way into the market by cloning someones innovation on Excel, Word, PPTs and so on and did so well for itself. He also mentions how the company belts out new products so frequently into the market and monetizes it. The simple rule he says is by exploiting the market gap i.e. identify a unmet need in the market, and launch a product to get 100% of market share....


But honestly, how does one spot such market gaps and exploit them for economic profit in an increasingly complex world! Lets look at what structured approached we have to uncover potent unmet needs:

1. Marketing research - which companies in CPG industries: P&G, Unilever, etc. constantly exploit
2. Proximity to customer by eliminating channels - which company like Dell has exploited so well...

Or a sheer gut feel and intuition!!!! or reading "Blue Ocean Strategy"!