Leading Blog

MARCH 18, 2011

[As a leader], you—not the IT department, nor the VP of IT, nor the chief information officer (CIO)—must understand, drive and be accountable for how technology is structured in order to reach the strategic goals of the operation….Technology The thing you want to be these days is a “fast follower.”

Chief Information Officer 284

Chief Information Officer CIO ROI Technology 284

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 12, 2013

Many social enterprises start small and grow fast. This puts a premium on the need to develop, or recruit, talented people who can take on evolving roles and responsibilities. Leaders plead lack of time and money to make development a priority. How do you develop, or hire, the staff you will need? But it was growing fast.

Banking 8

Banking Fast Follower Tools Survey 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 23, 2014

Rather it’s an on-going nipping and tucking of organizational resources to achieve both growth and efficiency at multiple levels: the company overall, the operating group level, and even within functional groups like human resources and information technology. Operations Organizational culture'

Ulrich 8

Ulrich Cost Efficiency Consultative 8

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

JUNE 1, 2015

The contrast could not be clearer: Amazon – fearlessly making big, risky bets like a serial entrepreneur; and Microsoft, eschewing disruptive innovation in favor of remaining the “ fast follower ” it has always been, wringing profit from previously proven technologies. There are some interesting recent developments.

Company 8

Company Software Long-term Short-term 8