We are all about speed!

Thoughts about speed in business and about our Fastuna platform which we created to help marketeers and product owners meet their objectives faster.

What is speed in business? It is a company’s ability to execute plans quickly. When we say "speed" we mean "high speed"; i.e. when it is significantly faster than competition — when the clients exclaim: "Wow! That was fast!!!"

Being fast vs being rushed. It is important to separate the two. Being able to do the work fast is no longer a competitive advantage but rather a hygiene factor necessary for staying afloat. But unlike being rushed — speed is the ability to do something properly as well as fast.

Financially the less time we spend on implementation the higher the return. We start selling sooner, we waste fewer resources on rivalry and in turn we maximise profit.

Importance of speed in business? Let’s ask Google…
Go ahead, copy and paste the question into the search bar just for curiosity sake. You will see the numerous search results talking about how important speed in business is: books, scholarly articles, website publications and many more.

It is a very old wish actually… to take action right after the thought occurs, and to be able to make decisions with the same speed as our brain generates ideas and considers options. Should something be done or not? Which option is best? What elements to focus on? Where to run? Questions of this kind always arise… but the ideas sink into the quagmire of discussions, coordination, waiting for scores, forecasts and estimates. Some forever remain a bunch of nerve impulses in our brain simply because there are other more pressing issues at hand.

Operational sides of business such as sales, manufacturing and logistics for example, have already adapted to the fast decision-making trend. Online analytics, monitoring live parameters, knowledge libraries and search capabilities have made this process significantly faster.

Alas, the subjective decision-making by a small group of people in a company is still a common problem, while the whole 'doing it right' thing takes forever. As a result we end up leaving those decisions for a small group of top managers, which carries a high level of risk because there is a high chance that a decision based on one man’s opinion will be subjective, however senior. Or we spend too much time evaluating those risks.

So what is right marketing decision? It is very simple. The right decision is the one which will allow you to sell more. And selling more can only be achieved if a lot of people like what you are selling and the way you are selling it; if they find it relevant and if there is a demand for it. Therefore before creating, marketing or selling a product or service we should…

In actual fact we do all of that already. There is a high chance that when developing creative marketing materials almost all managers ask around for people’s opinions on it be it colleagues, friends or acquaintances on social media: "hey, how do you like our new ad?", "do you like this name?", "which of those messages would you choose?"… sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Why do we routinely ask opinions only of people we know rather than potential consumers. Suppose it is easier. Faster. Cheaper. And it is better than nothing! But the bottom line is that’s not what we need.

…and it is methodologically correct. That’s what the Fastuna platform is all about: it is about fast decision making for marketing products and services. Upload your ideas and materials. Within a few hours you receive a clear response from your potential consumers: key KPIs measured, areas to improve uncovered and strength and weaknesses understood.