Speed? - A competitive advantage or a liability?

"To perfect things, speed is a unifying force," the race-car driver Michael Schumacher has said. "To imperfect things, speed is a destructive force." No company is perfect, nor is any individual.

That made sense to me. But then again, how do we explain the "Need for Speed" in ventures - early or late stage? Try telling a team or a bunch of investors that we are going to grow slow and steady! It sounds great till a few quarters pass - and then the restlessness starts. "Opportunity costs" start getting thrown in every 2nd conversation!

Its always about spotting an opportunity, getting the model right, getting a team together, raising the money and moving very fast - at what cost?

Is it that the nature of capital is forcing the speed? High-risk, High-return VC/early stage capital is allocated for risky models and the investors want to know if it works (or doesnt) pretty quickly. Their time horizons are also 4-5 yrs (max 7-10) and hence the need to create a business of some incremental value (if not N times) in that horizon.

Most businesses that i have seen - VC funded or otherwise - go through tremendous business model changes before they latch on to the one that works.
Does the speed help identify blind alleys faster - and then, atleast you know what not to do - faster than trying each alley for a few years and then finding it is a blind one?

Given the level of unpredictability in the market (competition, regulatory, pricing, consumer, macro-economic, technology etc), the best bet seems to be the team that can navigate the high entropy levels in the market and figure out, in real-time, what makes sense - without having to start from scratch.

To my mind, companies evolve. They are not designed to be where they are today. So, a series of good and bad decisions have made the business what it is today - with its inherent strengths and weaknesses, its "DNA" and its ability (or lack thereof) to change direction quickly.

So, IMHO, speed has to be used judiciously. Move fast if you think you have cracked the code (and in your gut, if you are honest about it, you will know). If not, be patient. Keep playing with the business, try different models, different target markets, different positionings - till you crack it.
Dont worry too much about what the market thinks about your changing avataars. Once you crack the code, they will all come round. Btw, they are not spending all their waking hours thinking about you either. So, enjoy the ride, be patient - and then accelerate when ready!