• Harvard Business/Bloomberg, Tuesday, November 17, 2009 10:37 AM

Scott Anthony was tooling through the traffic in Bangalore when a friend commented that he thought that the Tata Nano -- widely reputed to be the low-cost vehicle that will bring carbon emissions to the masses -- will be a flop.

Anthony's first response was knee-jerk: "But look around," he said. "That family will surely flock to an affordable car that projects social status and provides a safe, comfortable ride." He was referring to a family of four hanging onto a scooter zipping though the heavily congested traffic.

A light bulb went off even as he was talking. In short, the family was zipping through the heavily congested traffic. Well, they were zipping through it a lot faster than could a Nano -- no matter how cheap it may be.

The moral of the story: "My colleague reminded me how important it is to look at the world through the consumer's eyes ... The disruptor has to compete against the solutions the consumer considers." Time will tell if his colleague is right or wrong, he concludes.

Read the whole story at Harvard Business/Bloomberg »