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41Principle · Group 6

Speed

Speed as a competitive advantage

“Speed uses windows of opportunity while they are open and spares everyone the exhaustion of a long struggle – as long as it does not turn into haste without scrutiny.”

Every day that a conflict, a project or a decision drags on costs something: money, attention, patience and opportunities. The principle of Speed says that these costs are so high that speed has a value of its own.

Group 6: Time and TempoT2 Eastern Strategy
Go to the in-depth section ↓
A golden frame stands open, with three teal dots in front of it; while a line of dots runs out like sand, the sides of the frame slowly close in. One dot waits and fades, one draws a straight line through a small checking ring and reaches the frame before it closes, and the third skips past the ring and dissolves into mist-blue.
In short

Speed uses windows of opportunity while they are open and spares everyone the exhaustion of a long struggle – as long as it does not turn into haste without scrutiny.

What it’s about: Every day that a conflict, a project or a decision drags on costs something: money, attention, patience and opportunities. The principle of Speed says that these costs are so high that speed has a value of its own. If you act promptly, you use windows of opportunity before they close, you give the other side no time to dig in, and you shorten the phase in which everyone involved grows tired.

In depth

The principle in detail

Three steps through the principle: grasp it, place it, put it to work. Open each topic on its own.

The core messageCore statement and 3 clarifications
In essence

Time cannot be recovered. Every unnecessary delay costs strength, money and opportunities, and it does so on both sides.

It does not say
That faster is always better. If you are the weaker side, you can win by delaying, and where the situation is unclear, speed can lock in mistakes.
It does not say
That fast decision-makers get by with less knowledge. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt found that they used more current information, not less.
It also says
A fast first step is of little use if you then slacken and squander your lead.
The explanationHaste, by contrast, cuts out the scrutiny, and if you skip the decisive check, you are fast and wrong.
  • So speed does not mean rushing.
  • It comes from deciding early, running steps in parallel and limiting yourself to what matters.
  • Haste, by contrast, cuts out the scrutiny, and if you skip the decisive check, you are fast and wrong.
The question

Where are you waiting right now when the waiting no longer tests anything?

The signs3 signs when you heed it · 3 when you overlook it
When you heed it
  • Decisions get a deadline, and they are actually made by then.
  • Work steps run in parallel wherever possible.
  • Before anything is finalized, there is a check that nobody skips.
When you overlook it
  • Topics move from meeting to meeting, and the team grows tired.
  • Or you rush off as soon as pressure builds, and a check falls by the wayside.
  • After a fast start, the pace drops off.
The backgroundFrom Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” (China, probably 5th century BC), above all Chapters 2 and 11. · T2 Eastern Strategy
  1. 5th c. BC
    OriginSun Tzu

    The Art of War

  2. 1989
    SupplementedKathleen M. Eisenhardt

    Making Fast Strategic Decisions in High-Velocity Environments

  3. 1990
    SupplementedGeorge Stalk Jr. and Thomas M. Hout

    Competing Against Time

  4. Tradition T2
    TraditionEastern Strategy

    Sun Tzu, Kautilya, the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the Tao Te Ching, Miyamoto Musashi, François Jullien

    See the tradition on the Origin page
Read more: the full background

From Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” (China, probably 5th century BC), above all Chapters 2 and 11. Supplemented by the management research of Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and of George Stalk Jr. and Thomas M. Hout.

The research3 sources: 1 classic, 1 case study, 1 theory · 1989–1990 · with limitations of the research
3 sources1989–1990 period1 classic1 case study1 theory
Strength of evidence
  1. weak
  2. moderate
  3. strong

A small, widely cited study shows that speed need not come at the expense of information; that speed spares everyone exhaustion is the conclusion of a classic.

  1. 5th c. BC
    Classic
    Sun Tzu

    “The Art of War,” Chapter II, verses 5 and 6 (translated by Lionel Giles, 1910): we have heard of stupid haste, but cleverness has never been associated with long delays; no country has benefited from a long war.

  2. 1989
    Case study
    Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

    “Making Fast Strategic Decisions in High-Velocity Environments”: in eight microcomputer firms, fast decision-makers used more current information and considered several alternatives at the same time; speed went hand in hand with better performance.

  3. 1990
    Theory
    George Stalk Jr. and Thomas M. Hout

    “Competing Against Time”: time is a competitive advantage of companies in its own right.

Where the research reaches its limits
  • Speed is not always right.
  • If you are the weaker side, you can win by delaying, as Quintus Fabius Maximus did against Hannibal (Principle 44).
  • Where the situation is unclear, acting fast can lock in mistakes, and speed has costs that must be paid later, as the debate about the Treuhand, the agency that privatized East German industry after German reunification, shows.
  • Kathleen M. Eisenhardt studied eight firms in a single, very fast-moving industry; the link to performance found there is tentative.
Read more: what research shows

The idea comes from “The Art of War,” attributed to Sun Tzu. In the second chapter, he tallies up the costs of a campaign and concludes, in Lionel Giles’s translation: “Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.” And: “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.” In 1989, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt studied eight companies in the microcomputer industry. The fast decision-makers relied on current information rather than forecasts, considered several alternatives at the same time and sought advice from experienced counselors. There, fast decisions went hand in hand with better performance; she herself calls this evidence tentative. In 1990, George Stalk Jr. and Thomas M. Hout described time as a competitive advantage in its own right.

The related principles13 Culminating Point · 25 OODA Loop · 43 Initiative · 44 Annihilation and Exhaustion
OODA LoopInitiative

To go deeper, see 25 OODA Loop (if you observe, decide and act faster, you get inside your opponent’s decision cycle) and 43 Initiative (speed is often the means to win it and keep it)

Culminating Point

13 Culminating Point shows where an advance that is too fast loses its force

Annihilation and Exhaustion

It stands in tension with 44 Annihilation and Exhaustion: sometimes deliberate slowness is the better strategy

Read more: the full text

To go deeper, see 25 OODA Loop (if you observe, decide and act faster, you get inside your opponent’s decision cycle) and 43 Initiative (speed is often the means to win it and keep it); 13 Culminating Point shows where an advance that is too fast loses its force. It stands in tension with 44 Annihilation and Exhaustion: sometimes deliberate slowness is the better strategy.

The action steps5 things you can actually do

  1. Write down which of your decisions have been open for more than four weeks, and ask of each one what the waiting is still testing.

  2. Give every open decision a deadline and a person who will make it.

  3. Look through your processes for steps that run one after another only because it has always been done that way, and run them in parallel where possible.

  4. Before every fast step, decide which one check must not be dropped under any circumstances.

  5. After a quick success, plan the next step right away so that your lead does not peter out.

The reflection questions3 questions: Which decision are you putting off right now, and what is the waiting actually still testing?
  1. Which decision are you putting off right now, and what is the waiting actually still testing?
  2. Which window of opportunity in your area will close in the coming months?
  3. Which check did you last skip under time pressure, and what did that cost?

Take your time with one question. Write down your answer – or talk it over with someone you trust.

To finish
The picture to rememberThe animation once more, with an explanation
  1. A golden frame stands open, with three teal dots in front of it
  2. While a line of dots runs out like sand, the sides of the frame slowly close in
  3. One dot waits and fades, one draws a straight line through a small checking ring and reaches the frame before it closes, and the third skips past the ring and dissolves into mist-blue
Strategy Check

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In context

Group 6: Time and Tempo

Guiding question: When do you act, and how fast?

Stage 3 of 5: Choose the path

Where the 92 principles come from: eight traditions of strategy, from classical war theory to dealing with uncertainty.

More about the origin

Background: WEGVISOR’s own selection from the strategy literature · More about the origin

Examples

The principle in practice

From the different spheres of society.

Government

Helmut Kohl, German Reunification and Speed

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and East Germany’s accession on October 3, 1990, are 328 days apart. Helmut Kohl bet on speed because he saw that the window of opportunity for unity could close again.

Speed
Business

Uğur Şahin, Özlem Türeci and Speed

In January 2020, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci steer their Mainz-based company BioNTech toward a new virus. Some 324 days later, their vaccine receives its first authorization, because they decided early and did many things at the same time instead of one after another.

Speed
Media

Stern, the Hitler Diaries and Speed

In April 1983, the German magazine Stern presents what are supposedly Adolf Hitler’s diaries as a sensation, without waiting for the expert report on the material. Eleven days later, the German Federal Archives establish that they are forged: an object lesson in how speed turns into haste.

Speed
Business

Movie: The Social Network

David Fincher’s 2010 film tells the founding of Facebook as a race. The film’s Zuckerberg wins because he builds, launches and expands faster than everyone else competing for the same idea, and he pays a high human price for it.

Speed
FAQ

Questions about Speed

What does the principle of Speed say?

Long struggles exhaust everyone involved, so speed has a value of its own. If you act promptly, you seize opportunities and give the other side no time to dig in.

Where does the principle of Speed come from?

It goes back to Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” above all Chapters 2 and 11. Management research, for example by Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, has taken up the idea for companies and refined it.

What are some examples of Speed?

German reunification in 1990, the development of the BioNTech vaccine in 2020 and, as a counterexample, the Hitler diaries in 1983.

How well is Speed supported by research?

Evidence: moderate – a small, widely cited study shows that speed need not come at the expense of information; that speed spares everyone exhaustion is the conclusion of a classic.

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