The Fast Fish Eats the Slow One

The current crisis created a new situation, where only the flexible, self-renewing companies can survive. The constantly changing, insecure marketing environment demands greater adaptability from the companies than ever before. Today it is no longer the size of a company that defines its successfulness, but its ability to react fast to the changes.

Jason Jennings’ and Laurence Haughton’s bestseller titled It’s Not the Big that Eats the Small…It’s the FAST that Eats the Slow was published in 2001, however, the statements of the book nowadays gained new meaning due to the crisis. The authors examined the world’s leading companies for years, and came to the conclusion, that in the case of really successful companies, the fast reaction does not mean senseless trepidity, but fast thinking, fast decision making, fast entry to the markets, and keeping up the speed.

According to Jennings and Haughton, CEOs must learn to make forecasts and plans for the future based on past tendencies. They must examine the different changes, the reasons behind the economic processes so that later on – with this knowledge – they would be able to find the best solution for a given situation as fast as possible.

In order to react fast, the inner bureaucracy of the company must be abolished, and it must be replaced by governing principles that allow employees to make the crucial decisions that fall within their cognizance. The rigidity of the huge companies ofter stems from the complex internal structure and the difficult approval procedure that together slow down the decision making process.

Ever since the outbreak of the crisis several examples worldwide proved that huge, successful, and seemingly stable companies can collapse as a result of inflexibility. Those who cannot adapt to the changing environment can be easily consumed by the fast-reacting competitors. Every company must decide if it wants to belong to the former or the latter group!