Speed of execution is the moat inside which live all other moats. Speed is your best strategy. Speed is your strongest weapon. Speed has THE highest correlation to mammoth outcomes. Those who conflate speed w/ 'thoughtlessness' haven't seen world class execution @ speed. E.g.:

Many confuse speed w/ impatience. Impatience is your boss pinging you @ 9pm then calling @ 6am to check if a task is done. Speed is strategic. It is a permeated sense of urgency built w/ a shared belief that what you are doing is important & if you don’t do it, someone else will.
AMZN defines speed. Their 2015 SEC filing (https://t.co/fWSsmlxVdI) is a must-read: (1) deliberate irreversible decisions (~10%?) (2) expedite all else. Founding teams need to learn how to apply judgment w/ <70% of data (<50% for early stage cos). Move fast, “disagree & commit”.
The launch of AMZN Prime is, of course, the stuff of legends. Apparently, Bezos called his top leadership over the xmas weekend to his house (busiest week of the year; lots of stuff crashing) & tells them to plan & launch Prime in 3-4 weeks. @vijayravindran talks about it (3):
.@elonmusk is another fantastic example of speed & urgency. In 2018, unhappy w/ how the Starlink project was moving, he flew to Seattle &, soon upon landing, fired 7 of his top managers. By May 2019, there were 60 starlink sats in space. Elon is now expediting Mars timelines.
Back on earth, @pfizer pulled a miracle covid vaccine out of what seemed like a magic hat but behind the scenes, the CEO was pushing his team to deliver 10x the capacity they had initially planned. He was asking his team, “Why can’t we make more and why can’t we make it sooner?”
Speed has a LOT of benefits. Rapid rollouts builds traction & moats faster→ more wins→ better morale→ more success→ better PR→ attracts capital @ better valuation→ attracts stronger people→ more success. Eric Schmidt used to say Revenue solves all known problems, but…
...before revenue hits, speed solves most known problems. Mike Cassidy of Google[x] wrote about this extensively - here’s an example of how quickly he opened up a new office for his then startup post a fundraiser in ‘98. If you can do THIS in 1998, we have no excuse in 2020.
So, how to identify sluggishness in your company? Found a strong VP of sales→ took 7 days to close? Close in <24hrs. Hired a bad salesperson→ took 6mos to fire? Fire in <60d. Product sprints are 4wk? Do in <2wk. Growth slowing, but took 2 mos to call all-hands? 🤦‍♂️CALL TONIGHT!
.@hubiloconnect (@LightspeedIndia portco) saw their revenues fall to $0 in Mar’20 as offline events shut down due to covid. In 20 days, they pivoted to virtual events: reduced sprint cycles to <5d, worked weekends, built an MVP & got 1 client@ $250. They are now touching 10M ARR.
Speed works! Speed of execution is the moat inside which live all other moats. Speed is your best strategy. Speed is your strongest weapon. We are obsessed with speed. If you are a founder who loves speed & can keep pace with Lightspeed, we’d love to hear from you!

/end.

More from Society

So, as the #MegaMillions jackpot reaches a record $1.6B and #Powerball reaches $620M, here's my advice about how to spend the money in a way that will truly set you, your children and their kids up for life.

Ready?

Create a private foundation and give it all away. 1/

Let's stipulate first that lottery winners often have a hard time. Being publicly identified makes you a target for "friends" and "family" who want your money, as well as for non-family grifters and con men. 2/

The stress can be damaging, even deadly, and Uncle Sam takes his huge cut. Plus, having a big pool of disposable income can be irresistible to people not accustomed to managing wealth.
https://t.co/fiHsuJyZwz 3/

Meanwhile, the private foundation is as close as we come to Downton Abbey and the landed aristocracy in this country. It's a largely untaxed pot of money that grows significantly over time, and those who control them tend to entrench their own privileges and those of their kin. 4

Here's how it works for a big lotto winner:

1. Win the prize.
2. Announce that you are donating it to the YOUR NAME HERE Family Foundation.
3. Receive massive plaudits in the press. You will be a folk hero for this decision.
4. Appoint only trusted friends/family to board. 5/
Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

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