DISRUPTION STRATEGIES
First To Market
By Joan Kabugu
I
once read this concept from a hand
out while I was doing an experiential
business skills immersion course
courtesy of Deloitte, YALI - Young African
Leaders Initiative and KCDF Kenya
Community Development Foundation in
2017. I had a total of seven documents to
read including an ebook ‘Playing to Win’,
two long Harvard Business Review reads
and a 50 slide overview of the business
learnings for the month.
I never could afford an MBA at USIU
when it was cheaper a decade ago. No
shame in this. In life you have to be
content with the cards life has handed
you and you hold on to the joker for
that perfect moment. When I looked at
the fees recently my face conjured into a
shocked emoji. Now I can afford the fee
from ten years ago but the current fee I’ll
only afford it in another decade. Oh well.
Reading Richard Branson’s Business
Striped Bare is easy breezy. It’s memoir.
These reads had invaluable business
academia written all over them. Back to the issue at hand. Many of our
businesses will be lucky if we ever hit the
first to market gold. Not because we can’t,
we just don’t have the balls, the discipline
and patience for it.
I picked the shortest document which was
a four pager talking about the ‘First Mover
Advantage’ that title alone had a nice ring
to it. Eventually I did finish the rest of
the handouts from that zip file because if
you’re in business you have to learn all that
you can. This was one of the two business
workshops I’ve been part of since 2016. Companies as simple as Java are the lucky
ones’ they’ve become homegrown and are
counting 20+ years in the business. They
were in the right place at the right time
- it might be cliché but still the truth of
the matter. I have no qualms admitting
I’m a subscriber, because I’m not jealous.
Abroad I’m thinking of Apple (Which
The thing about being fast to market is that
you can win it all or loose it all. Most of such
instances require some AI kind of vision
to see success when it’s not really probable
and obnoxious from where other people are
standing. As the rest of the early adopters,
early majority, late majority and laggards
catch up an entire decade is gone and if your
gut was right you are laughing all the way
to the bank.
76 MAL34/20 ISSUE
I’m one leg in at the moment) and down
my alley there’s Netflix.
These companies took a risk in being
innovators, defied the naysayers, put their
money where their mouths were and
zwooop took the plunge and went where
no one had gone before.
The thing about being fast to market is
that you can win it all or loose it all. Most
of such instances require some AI kind of
vision to see success when it’s not really
probable and obnoxious from where other
people are standing. As the rest of the early
adopters, early majority, late majority and
laggards catch up an entire decade is gone
and if your gut was right you are laughing
all the way to the bank.
Being ‘First to market’ with any
‘innovative’ company is one of the surest
ways of attaining absolute business
success. Innovative here to mean that your
offering is novel and well thought out.
There are however a few first to market
entities that got caught up in the deadly
sin of greed and were dethroned. Key
words here are ‘just a few’. Here are a few
things why I want in on the first to market
league.
Competition can’t match
your speed
Competition and copycats will try many
times but they will always fall short. It’s
simple really. You came in first, your sweat
capital combined with your knowledge
of ins and outs of the business give you