Eva Bungert

Runners who want to win a race need a clear strategy, one that takes into account their own capabilities and limits as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. Moreover, they must be able to adjust their strategy even during the race. If they just try to keep up with the pack, they will run into the proverbial wall – usually at some point during the second half of the course. Many companies currently find themselves in a similar situation. What they need is a wellplanned race strategy between market dynamics and inner stability.

Anyone who has ever been in a competition knows what it is like: that feeling that comes over you when you realize that the opponents are faster or better than you. Not a nice feeling. A feeling you want to get rid of as quickly as possible. After all, you have some catching up to do. The usual response is to become hectic – followed later by exhaustion.  

Unfortunately, this type of thinking and acting never leads ­anyone out of the undesirable situation. By the time you make up the original distance you were trailing, your opponent has made further gains. Exactly that decisive distance or time which gives the opponent a competitive advantage and, in the end, the victory in the race.    

Companies find themselves facing the same problem when trying to catch up: despite the measures which have hastily been initiated, they cannot make up any of the lost ground and must struggle with internal problems such as high costs, low margins, and great fluctuation. The once smooth racetrack turns into an obstacle course.    

When you try to be too fast, you usually end up in a “speed crisis”   

Companies active on markets with a strong orientation to technology such as the telecommunications and IT sectors must sustain their position in an environment of constant transforma­tion. The rapid technological development in recent years has also led to extremely fast changes in markets and customer requirements and goes hand in hand with an adaptation of the organization. Future technological opportunities as well as the reaction of the customers must be anticipated. Every new technological development must be exploited to conquer new ­market areas and to improve or expand the company’s own ­position. Every single time a possibility arises, the company must ask ­itself if there will be any rewards from being a “first mover”, or if it is perhaps not better to sit back and then, as a “second” or even “third mover”, to offer exactly the same solution to a broader or different target group or simply at lower prices, building on the learning curve and the mistakes made by those who were faster. But this may entail accepting the risk of just being too late. When confronted with this decision, many companies end up stumbling into an internal crisis – the “speed crisis”.    

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