Fast Strategy or Slow Strategy – Its Affect on Your Performance

To facilitate some fresh thinking we get managers talking about strategy that is fast and slow, rather than good or bad.

Many managers have strategies that are slowing them down – limiting their company’s ability to exploit its full potential or to respond to the opportunities and challenges emerging its market.  We call them slow strategies.

The problem is that there are a lot of slow strategies out there.  Indeed, for every one fast strategy there as many as 9 slow ones.  That is based on research into the rate of success of business strategies.

In the image above we use the familiar chess icon to denote the traditional approach to strategy – an approach that is cautious, analytical and slow.  But the slowness of strategy is at the core of strategy’s key challenges.

How slow is slow strategy?  Well pretty slow as the following figures suggest:

From the above it is clear how slow strategies hinder success.  They inhibit organizations in responding to the opportunities and challenges of their market.

Fast strategy is fast to devise and implement.  It is also fast to adapt, innovate and learn.  That is how it gives a company the edge.

Fast strategy is about Competition, Speed, Passion and Skill.  But most of all it is about Winning!

Fast paced change requires a faster strategy – that means keeping pace with technological, regulatory, competitive and other forms of change.

Fast strategy is about above  average growth and profitability.

Fast paced change requires a faster strategy – that means keeping pace with technological, regulatory, competitive and other forms of change.