Download Smart Mover, Dumb Mover

Smart Mover, Dumb Mover
By: Jason Spears
Smart Mover, Dumb Mover
 “Think the first mover advantage is a myth? You’re
wrong: Most pioneering dot-coms failed not because
they were first but because they were dumb.”
 What companies should learn from the internet debacle
is not that being first is a dangerous decision, but that
being dumb seldom succeeds
3 Ways To Be A Dumb Mover
 Dumb: Getting your timing wrong
 If a company invests faster than it learns, it will over-drive the opportunity and
end up with an expensive embarrassing failure.
 Dumber: Overpaying for market share
 The idea of capturing a first mover advantage often produces a spending orgy
among a lot of look alike competitors. Each company has the intent on ramping
up faster than its rivals.
 Dumbest: Being first with a business model that’s DOA (dead on arrival)
 Many business models are brain dead from the get-go. They breathe as long as
they are hooked up to the ventilator of investor funds but expire the moment
investors swallow their grief and pull the plug.
Key Points
 The goal is not to be first to market some
absolute sense, but to be first to put together the
precise combination of features, value, and
sound business economics that unlocks a
profitable new market.
 Sometimes the company that does this is the
first mover, and sometimes it is not. But it’s
always the smart mover.