Speed to Value

The Quest for Instant Gratification

By definition, "Speed to value" refers to the ability to quickly deliver tangible benefits or results from a business initiative or investment.?

This is implied in every project I take on and has been for almost a decade.? As a result, I designed my entire approach for both the executive and the corporation to operate with a “speed to value” mentality.? This shows up as an agile co-creation design that pulls the thinking through a framework and into something actionable.?

While I appreciate the desire for instant gratification and the hacks that go with the speed to get to tangible outcomes, I still believe in doing the deep work necessary to connect the dots before sprinting to market.?

Call me old school, with a modern AI twist, but I see too many accelerated go-to-market approaches as a strategy-by-tactics construct.? That amounts to throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what portion sticks.

SLOW DOWN TO SPEED UP

Many people have uttered this phrase over the years, and I have come to value the hard-earned simplicity of slowing down so you can deliver on speed to value.? The following represents my best intentions for delivering speed to value.?

• Accelerating time-to-market: Attempting to reduce the time it takes to go from idea or development to generating actual value for the business and customers.

• Demonstrating ROI faster: Showing measurable returns on investments more quickly to justify costs and gain continued support.

• Gaining competitive advantage: Outpacing competitors by delivering value to customers more rapidly.

• Improving agility: Enabling businesses to adapt and respond to market changes more swiftly.

• Enhancing customer satisfaction: Delivering improvements and new capabilities to customers faster.

These intentions are the execution side of crafting a strategic narrative based on deep work.? They also require that you have systems in place to make these speed-to-value actionable.? Without systems, these are admirable intentions that may never be realized.?

THE AUDIT OF YOUR SYSTEMS

Fresh off of running a corporate workshop, I was encouraged to see the leadership team dig into the way they run their business.? Were they set up to practice in a speed-to-value approach? ? Did they have systems and talent in place to execute in this manner??

An in-practice scenario of speed to value might look something like this.?

• Agile methodologies: Using iterative, incremental approaches to deliver working solutions faster rather than long development cycles.

• Minimum Viable Products (MVPs): Launching basic versions of products or services quickly to test market fit and generate early value.

• Continuous delivery: Implementing processes for frequent, reliable software releases to get new features to users faster.

• Data-driven decision-making: Using real-time analytics and insights to make quicker, more informed business decisions.

• Cross-functional collaboration: Breaking down silos to speed up processes and reduce bottlenecks.

• Prioritizing high-impact initiatives: Focusing resources on projects that can deliver the most significant value in the shortest time frame.

• Streamlining processes: Eliminating unnecessary steps and bureaucracy to accelerate value creation.

• Leveraging technology: Adopting tools and platforms that enable faster development, deployment, and scaling of solutions.

CONDITIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

Not every company is designed to function at a speed to value level.? However, I would submit that every company and executive, for that matter, needs to dive into their conditions and constraints to find out if it is possible to do so.?

What Conditions are you facing??

• What are the macro shifts impacting your position?
• What are the industry ecosystem shifts impacting your growth potential?
• Are the business cycles tailwinds or headwinds?

What Constraints are you facing??

• Do you have financial constraints - like capital access?
• Is your data accessible and actionable?
• Is your product in sync or obsolete with demand?

A moment of honest assessment and cross-functional inputs are a prerequisite to determine if you are ready to operate at speed to value.? We are not talking about an on/off switch but more of a conscious and deliberate decision.??

NOW (How you are realizing this today)

1. Are you realizing speed to value today?
2. If yes, have you audited what is working and not working?
3. If yes, is this widespread or isolated??????

NEW (How you will realize this tomorrow)

1. I will make a conscious effort to hold a speed to value offsite to force an audit and assessment of our business for 2025 planning.?
2. I will identify where we are achieving speed to value and ask how we can replicate this across the whole company.
3. I will seek out the understanding of conditions and constraints in our category and do the deep work to see if we are aligned on what needs to be addressed.?

NEXT (I see a world in which)?

I see a world in which working at speed to value is a way of running a business but is not in spite of actually doing business.?

THE PAYOFF

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got." - Henry Ford

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If you are seeking a way to optimize your speed to value, book a free consultation with me, and let's consider the possibilities. ?

My work has raised a collective $1B+ for the companies I have worked with over the last ten years.? And I have helped dozens of companies and executives to find their narrative voice.