In the world of athletics there is a widely accepted principle that says: “Speed kills”. In most sporting events speed will prevail over strength and many times speed will end up being the deciding factor between victory and defeat. As important as speed is on the playing field, in my experience, it’s even more important in the business world. While there is little debate that speed can create extreme competitive advantage, it is not well understood that a lack of speed can send a company (or an individual’s career) into a death spiral. Agility, fluidity, decisiveness, commitment, and focus lead to creating speed that translates into a certainty of execution. In today’s blog post, I’ll discuss why you should feel “The Need for Speed.”
General George S. Patton said it best: “A good plan violently executed today is far better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” The search for perfection is one of the great adversaries of speed. In fact, at the risk of being controversial, I am going to take the position that perfection does not exist. I hate to break it to you, but those of you who consider yourself perfectionists simply exhibit perfectionist tendencies in an unrealistic attempt to achieve what you can’t have. The pursuit of perfectionism does not result in an increase in quality, but it will result in time delays, cost overruns, missed deadlines, and unfulfilled commitments.
Some would argue that speed is undisciplined decision making, but I’d caution you not to confuse speed with reckless abandon… I’m a big proponent of planning, evaluating, analyzing, and strategizing, but only if it’s concluded in the moment prompt. Fashion. “Analysis paralysis” leads to missed opportunities and failed initiatives.
Earlier in my career, I served as Director of Internet Strategy for what was then the world’s largest web enablement company. While in that role, I coined the term e-velocity, which we trademark and use to describe the influence that technology was having on the pace at which business had to be conducted in order to remain competitive. It used to be acceptable to take 12-18 months to implement an initiative, but in today’s world it’s better to be able to do it in 90 days or it will be obsolete before it hits the market. When I started in the business it was customary and customary to produce 5 and 10 year business plans and today I work with 90 day rolling tactical business plans.
Recent advances in Business Process Management (BPM) have reduced the planning and budgeting cycle from 120 and 90 days to 45 days. But is 45 days good enough? How many days constitute a response cycle time? Many believe that the correct number is between 5 and 10 days. Why is cycle time reduction important? Because planning shorter processes and budgeting facilitates greater flexibility and responsiveness. Email used to be the flagship app and now it has become obsolete… My digital communication preference (along with most of my colleagues) has shifted from email to instant messaging (IM) and instant messaging now makes up around of 70%. of my messaging activity (see a previous blog post titled “The Power of Instant Messaging”).
In today’s competitive business environment, you must be able to quickly assess risk and make timely decisions. You cannot succeed being guided by fear and hesitation. When in doubt, remember that “speed kills” and that “he who doubts is lost.”