But that often leads to decreased value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services. Simply increasing the pace of production, for example, may be one way to try to close the speed gap. Firms sometimes confuse operational speed (moving quickly) with strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value)-and the two concepts are quite different. How did they defy the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating profits over a three-year period. In our study of 343 businesses (conducted with the Economist Intelligence Unit), the companies that embraced initiatives and chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating profits than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. Paradoxically, they should try slowing down instead. Organizations fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and many resources looking for ways to pick up the pace. That gap is significant regardless of region, industry, company size, or strategic emphasis. In business, there’s a speed gap: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive strategy and how fast the company actually moves.

Speediness of the review