Speed in an organization is critical. In fact, knowing your speed, slowing, accelerating as appropriate are also important. In fast growing or very competitive markets, speed can often be the difference between success and failure. But speed without control is reckless! What good is it if you’ve done something faster than it was done before if you crash and burn? Speed is important, but you must stay in control.
One element of speed is Time to Market. It is well-known that the first mover advantage is critical and can set the stage for a market leadership position. It certainly is not a guarantee, but it is a distinct advantage in most cases.
An example from nearly 20 years ago is when I was in the Microsampling industry – we made devices that punctured the finger for a blood sample, used mostly in conjunction with blood glucose meters. We supplied the microsampling devices to other, generally large OEM suppliers. We had partnered with a new start-up company that had some new technology that used considerably less blood than other technologies, enabling them to sample in less painful places like the arm instead of the fingers. Our previous development to manufacture timelines for similar products were 24 months or longer. This customer had a very tight timeline in order to be first to market with a meter specifically designed for sampling low volumes from the arm. They wanted us to get the job done in 10 months! That was less than half the time compared to our previous fastest time to market. I had some ideas about this and we put our team together and put a plan in place – one that had risk to the schedule if things didn’t work right, plus high initial material costs and probably a slightly higher number of quality complaints, but we committed to the project. And you know what? We completed it in 10 months, on time. The initial device costs were significantly more than the long term goal, but that was rectified by tooling up high capacity molds after product launch and increased the reliability of the device at the same time. The time to market advantage was well-worth the initial increased costs. The company went on to take a very large percentage of the market.
A few years later, the same customer asked us to do it again – but in seven months instead. And we did it.
Many, if not most times it is better to get a good product out very fast rather than waiting longer to get a great product out slowly – particularly when you are in a super competitive industry.