ESSENTIALS MANAGEMENT Dave Girouard I’ve long believed that speed is the ultimate weapon in business. All else being equal, the fastest company in any market will win. Speed is a deifning characteristic — if not the deifning characteristic — of the leader in virtually every industry you look at. In tech, speed is seen primarily as an asset in product development. Hence the “move fast and break things” mentality, the commitment to minimum viable products and agile development. Many people would agree that speed and agility are how you win when it comes to product. What they fail to grasp is that speed matters to the rest of the business too — not just product. Google is fast. General Motors is slow. Startups are fast. Big companies are slow. It’s pretty clear that fast equals good, but there’s relatively little written about how to develop the institutional and employee muscle necessary to make speed a serious competitive advantage. I believe that speed, like exercise and eating healthy, can be habitual. Through a prolonged, proactive effort to develop these good habits, we can convert ourselves as founders, executives and employees to be faster, more eiffcient company- building machines. And, when enough members of a team exhibit this set of habits, and are rewarded with reinforcement, compensation, and promotions, the organization itself will gain velocity. 43