Leading Blog

MARCH 18, 2011

Technology enables velocity—the speed of getting products to market, the speed of delivery, the speed of analytics, and the list goes on. The thing you want to be these days is a “fast follower.” Instead, you want to quickly follow the first movers who are trying to capitalize on a blossoming trend.

Chief Information Officer 284

Chief Information Officer CIO ROI Technology 284

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 14, 2012

Transformational developments are swirling around the banking industry — as they are in nearly every industry. The first innovators in the market are often too early in the technology curve. Here's one of the biggest that would-be innovators should ask: Should I lead or follow? Do the panelists agree?".

Fast Follower 14

Fast Follower Banking Innovation Follow-up 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 12, 2012

The topic — part of a series on innovation sponsored by Singapore's Economic Development Board and coordinated by Harvard Business Review — was "What's the Right Entry Point for Emerging Markets: Target Customers at the Bottom or the Middle of the Pyramid?". billion by 2030. Reaching this vast middle won't be easy, I said.

Marketing 14

Marketing Hedge Chief Technology Officer Supply Chain 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 27, 2015

The stakes are high in the mobile wallet market, projected to be over $140 billion by 2019. But Samsung’s new mobile wallet strategy may be a sign that they are finally becoming a true leader and shedding their image as a fast follower. When we consider how large the physical store market is ( $3 trillion in the U.S.

Technology 8

Technology Retail System Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2012

This was just one round in a developing fight over the rules and norms that govern the international political economy. Writing in 1979, Roger Hansen (in Beyond the North-South Stalemate ) succinctly characterized the choices faced by developed and developing countries in the face of these demands.

Globalization 13

Globalization Banking Restructuring Politics 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 6, 2018

They are planning to be “fast followers” — a strategy that has worked with most information technologies. It’s true that some technologies need further development, but some (like traditional machine learning) are quite mature and have been available in some form for decades. System Development Time.

Company 8

Company Maturity System Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 15, 2016

The idea is to fast-forward a project, so you can see what the end result might look like and how the market will react. The leadership at Slack used the process to decide between two fundamentally different marketing approaches. Sprints encourage fast follow-up. The sprint corrects these problems.

Consensus 8

Consensus Hotels Project Fast Follower 8