execute fastest

Big and Famous

Or

Fast and Mobile

Speed may be more important, and

you can use it to your advantage.

1Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

Not true!!!!!!

Use speed not size as a competitive advantage

Old Harvard University study………

1. Big companies have cost advantage.

2. Big companies get the best customers.

3. Big companies get the best employees.


Note: In the United States, larger corporation do not protect smaller ones.

Use speed not size as a competitive advantage

Based on research of companies in the United States

several years ago…

Big corporations…………

Had less profit growth 3 out of 4 business

terms than smaller competitors

Grew slower 8 out of 10 business terms than

smaller competitors

Routinely fail to execute their own business

strategies more often than smaller competitors.

Source: Laurence Haughton (http://www.laurencehaughton.com)


Use speed as a competitive advantage

If you can say “yes”, it will be a company with a good future.

Whether when looking for a job or evaluating a

company, consider these three things:

Do they make decisions quickly?

Do they anticipate trends so they can respond

quickly?

When putting in a strategy, do they execute

quickly?



Is there a faster

way to do things?

Most companies suffer with three problems:

1. They have old processes & old ideas.

2. They only do what they are used to.

3. They have people and products that have

past expiration dates.5Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

Is the company evaluating

their methods regularly to

make sure they are not old?


Learn how to stop doing things.

1.Old Processes – Old Ideas

1. Use methods that worked well once.

2. Confidence was built in that method.

3. Comfort comes from years of doing the same thing.

4. Times change and there are faster ways to do things,

but people ignore them.





2.Only doing what they are used to

1. Better to change too fast than too slow. Let go

of ideas early and before others do (not after).

2. Continually determine if there is a faster way.





2.Only doing these they are used to

3.People and products that have past

expiration dates

Product-Employees-Customers

• Old products get in the way of new products coming in.

• Older employees get in the way of newer employees.

• Old customers get in the way of new customers.

• Older suppliers get in the way of new better suppliers.


Rational, data based thinking about the market

Only one in 25

people (4%) are

happy with us. We

must change the

product.


Emotional thinking about the market

Sometimes we get too emotional and too close to the market to see

change. CEO pride is often the greatest expense on a P/L statement.10

I love our

products.

They have a

long history

of success.

I love our

company.

It has a great

reputation and

has for years.

I am proud of what I

have achieved over

the years. The

market loves us.

Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan


Anticipating trends

1.A company must find out what people

are complaining about.

2.A recession is a good time to learn

opportunities as more people are

complaining.

Today’s complaints are tomorrow’s opportunities.11Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan


Anticipating trends

I’m asking a lot of

question and listening

carefully to learn his

worries, future needs and

prospects for the future.

By doing this, a company

can react fast when any

new request is made.


If a company gets too big, it stops asking questions.

It thinks it knows everything and stop listening.

Fast companies routinely spend time with the

customers that use their products.




Fast Execution



Fast Execution

1. Put action-plan in place quickly.

2. Follow through on it regularly and learn where help is needed.

3. The manager always has responsibility for progress.

4. There will always be people who want to slow things down and

should be kept away from the project as long as possible.


Examples of Fast Execution

On March 31, 2008, a country & western music band was traveling

from Halifax, Canada to Omaha, Nebraska and changed planes in

Chicago .

Halifax

Omaha

Chicago



The band looked out the window in Chicago and noticed the

United Airline’s ground crew throwing their guitars and

instruments.

The guitar was damaged and the musician made a claim to United

Airlines.

The musician, Dave Carroll, continued to claim damages of

US$1,200 which were always rejected, until July 6, 2009. So, he

decide to write a song about it, and put it on YouTube.



The song, “United Breaks Guitars” by Dave Carroll was a big hit

going from six viewings on July 6th to 2 million by July 12th. Still

United did nothing.

http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/



In the song a highly professional “Taylor” Guitar was mentioned.

As soon as Bob Taylor, President of Taylor Guitars, learned of this,

he made a short video on how to pack and travel with his guitars

and put it on YouTube.

He also helped Dave Carroll in any way he could to repair his

guitar.

http://www.taylorguitars.com/



CALTON CASES

Furthermore, Jim Laffoley, President of Calton Cases, saw the

video. He knew this was his chance, if he acted quickly, so with

Dave Carroll’s permission, he developed and promoted a special

“Dave Carroll Traveler’s Edition” Guitar Case.

With this “United Breaks Guitars” song, Dave Carroll’s music

business exploded, along with Taylor Guitars and Calton Case’s

sales.

With very little investment, profits skyrocketed because they acted

and executed fast. United Airlines is one of the largest airlines in

the world, and they finally responded, but it was too late.

http://www.caltoncases.com/


Need for speed in crisis

Today, with the speed of mobile devices, internet blogging, messages on

Tweeter, Facebook, LinkedIn and uploading videos on YouTube, fast

response is more important than ever. Here is the best approach to a crisis:

Acting

fast in a

crisis

First responseResponds in

minutes after

hearing of crisis.

Says more detailed

information to come.

Ask for

informationOn all social media,

blogs, etc. asks for

up-to-date

information by

anyone on the

scene.

Crisis managerThis position has

been assigned and

has authority to

respond to any

crisis quickly.

ResponseManager prepares

response based

on current

information.

Internal dataThe manager gathers

as much internal

information as

possible.

Visual dataGathers and presents

up-to-date

information with

visual images.

Next updateThe manager

continues to

present updates

until there is no

more interest in the

crisis.

In the past, response

was in days after

consolations with PR

managers and lawyers,

but the speed of

response in minutes or

hours is required in

today’s fast, “real-time”

marketing and PR

working environment.



Identifying Fast Companies

1. They want to get things done quickly.

2. They like the boss, the company, the products and the customers.

3. They look for ways to change things for the better.

4. They like learning new things and solving problems.

5. They do not worry greatly about making mistakes. The environment

encourages trying new things.


-They make quick decisions.

-They anticipate trends.

-They execute very fast.


Fast Companies are more competitive.

Source: Laurence Haughton (http://www.laurencehaughton.com)

1. There has been hundreds of studies on fast companies

directly and internally that shows fast companies are more

competitive.

2. There has been thousands of case studies showing how

competitive they are.


Thank you


If you would like to learn more….

24

Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

execute fastest

Business