03/10/2025

Leaders Can Move Fast and Fix Things

Too much speed has a bad reputation in business

Speed has a bad reputation in business, much of it deserved. Discussions of quality problems at Boeing or the collapse of FTX or even Quibi’s dramatic flameout often zero in on speed: Things were moving too fast for anyone to see the obvious flaws in leadership or culture or business model.

We fear speed’s standing has gotten worse over the last few weeks, as parts of the U.S. government have been dismantled at a dizzying pace, without much visible concern for the strategic price or collateral damage of the campaign to slash federal spending.

The assumption embedded in this style of operating—encapsulated by Silicon Valley's famous "move fast and break things" ethos—is that we can either make progress or take care of people, one or the other. A certain amount of wreckage is the price we have to pay for creating the future.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Harvard Business Review.