It’s been a while since I delivered a full on ranty blog but after a couple of weeks interviewing executives about innovation I’m now fully in the mood for a good old, eye rolling, eyebrow raising hissy fit. Why?
Because I am sick to the back teeth of people who are so far behind the game when it comes to Innovation justifying their piteous position with the use of the phrase “strategically we see ourselves as fast followers”. Aaargh!
Since the mid 00’s the concept of fast followership has slowly percolated its way into the lexicon of business language. Today, it has managed to migrate so far away from its original meaning and purpose that we can award it full membership of the business “bullshit bingo” Hall of Fame. Originally it was used in relation to those who were actually carrying out innovation and alluded to a well thought out strategy of how to bring “new cutting edge products” to market at a speed that afforded most of the benefits of first mover advantage but avoided some of the costs. The clue to the purpose of the phrase lay in the words themselves, FAST (as in actually happening, rapidly, at pace with meaning and intent) and FOLLOWER (as in actually moving closely enough to be associated with the leader). Those firms who truly adhered to the fast follower philosophy and strategy designed and built organisations that were designed to deliver new products to a mass market by a) copying almost exactly someone else’s intellectual property or b) enhancing some prototype development and using the strength of their global distribution networks to drive sales.
Today the term fast follower is confidently offered up by myriads of executives as a Pilate like excuse to exonerate themselves and their organisations recurrent failure to deliver innovation (which in their organisation’s case usually means really old stuff that everybody else now does) at the speed of a laconic glacier.
Come on people – let’s get with it. I have yet to meet more than the tiniest handful of organisations that actually do have a thought through and structured fast follower strategy (and they are mostly in pharmaceuticals). Instead I have met many organisations and executives who claim immunity from the charge of “you and your organisation are actually pretty crap at innovation” with a wistful look, an apathetic shrug of the shoulder, a beatific smile and a gentle utterance of the “but we’ve chosen to be a fast follower” mantra. You haven’t – you’re just bad at innovation.
I could go on, but I won’t. I should know better, I’m 45 for God’s sake. Ranting over for now.
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