Article at a glance:

How fast is too fast?

During the Internet mania of the past few years, many companies were built on the premise that the old rules of strategy and business building no longer apply. Instead, speed to market was believed to be the crucial factor—often at the expense of gathering complete information and developing a compelling strategy. The authors researched 80 Internet companies and found that speed was an advantage for only 10 percent of them.

The take-away

The benefits of speed outweigh the costs only for companies that are first movers in markets with huge potential and that face no clear obstacles to success. For the rest, speed provides no competitive advantage and often results in wasted resources, missed opportunities, and flawed strategies.