Is speed God or the devil?: August 06, 2001 issue of New Thinking

August 06, 2001 New Thinking:
Is speed God or the devil

Website content management

Home I About I Services I Clients I Contact

New Thinking Home

Subject Classification
Reader Feedback
Subscribing
Unsubscribing
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1998
1997
1996

Books by
Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content

The Web Content
Style Guide

The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers

August 06, 2001

Is speed God or the devil?

By Gerry McGovern

On the one hand, the McKinsey Quarterly, in a recent study of 80 Internet companies, concluded that, “moving fast at the expense of developing a solid business plan and gathering the right resources rarely paid off. Speed gave an advantage to 10 percent of the companies studied, and only if certain conditions were present. When they were not, moving fast provided no discernible advantage or turned out to be costly.”

On the other hand, the same McKinsey Quarterly, in 1997, stated: “First movers and fast adapters are rewarded in this environment [online retail banking]. Players that commit early to helping build a critical mass of participants within a web typically win higher returns and more sustainable positions than late entrants. As the Silicon Valley phrase has it, “Time is the devil and speed is God.”

On the one hand, “We know something's happening, and we're beginning to sense what it is,” James Gleick wrote in his book, Faster. “We're speeding up; our technology is speeding up; our arts and entertainment and the pace of invention and change -- it's all speeding up.”

On the other hand, Andy Grove told Business Week in 2000 that, “This business about speed has its limits. Brains don't speed up. The exchange of ideas doesn't really speed up, only the overhead that slowed down the exchange. When it comes down to the bulk of knowledge work, the 21st century works the same as the 20th century. You can reach people around the clock, but they won't think any better or any faster just because you've reached them faster. The give and take remains a limiting factor.”

On the one hand, FastCompany magazine asked in 2000: “Are you fast enough to compete in Internet time? … Can you move your project from idea to market in four months? That's the estimated time of survival in the fast-paced world of the Web, where startups nest themselves in incubators and hatcheries, soaking up talent and ideas.”

On the other hand, according to a recent survey of UK business by Which? Online magazine, those stating that email was their preference for communicating fell from 14 percent to just 5 percent since the 1999 survey. At the same time, people preferring face-to-face meetings rose from 39 percent to 67 percent. Some respondents said they felt “bombarded by e-mail.”

On the one hand, in a recent survey entitled ‘The Next Big Thing,’ respondents who received most information were coping “beautifully,” a spokesman for the survey stated. “We went into the survey expecting to find people were really struggling. We were surprised to find they were thriving.”

On the other hand, an E-Commerce Times article stated in 2000, “Information may travel in real-time, but good decisions are made by people who take time to reflect … Answering questions that have complex ramifications takes time -- more than it takes to click on the “sell” button or to seal a deal with a phone call. Speed kills. Taking the time to get it right could mean the difference between survival and oblivion.”

On the one hand, Bill Gates has stated that, “Business is going to change more in the next 10 years than in the last 50 … Business leaders who succeed will take advantage of a new way of doing business, a way based on the increasing velocity of information.”

Gerry McGovern

Related Content

March 10, 1997: Fast

October 7, 1996: The most precious resource is time

Next issue: Waiting for broadband
Previous issue: From long boom to long gloom
New Thinking homepage

New Thinking Newsletter
Subscribe to this free weekly newsletter covering the role and function of content on the Web.
More info | Privacy policy
Read the current issue

Email Address:

 Subscribe  Unsubscribe

Content management seminar feedback
"Gerry's presentation was very well received by the more than 400 higher education delegates. I've chaired this meeting since 1994 and very few speakers have generated the same level of enthusiasm. Wit and wisdom is always an unbeatable combination."
Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

“Excellent presenter ... thought-provoking and relevant. I hope we can persuade him to visit us again one day.”
Malcolm Davison
The British Association of Communicators in Business

"Hearing Gerry McGovern speaking, one can feel that he truly masters the subject of content management. He was voted ‘best speaker of the conference’ by delegates."
Toon Lowette
European Association of Directory Publishers

Find out more about Gerry McGovern's seminars

"Business leaders who succeed will take advantage of a new way of doing business, a way based on the increasing velocity of information."

Gerry McGovern is, in my opinion, one of the two or three brightest and most clued-in members of our industry.
John Audette, Publisher,
audettemedia, United States

More reader feedback