Why Blitzscaling Is All About Speed

One of the questions I’ve been asked very often in the corporate world is "why is Blitzscaling all about speed?

Well, the reason is that more and more markets are becoming winner-takes-most or winner-takes-all markets. Let me give you an example from my book, where I call these markets "Glengarry Glen Ross" markets, named after an old American movie about a demanding sales manager played by Alec Baldwin. He visits one of the company's offices where the salespersons have not been hitting their quota, with the goal of delivering a strong message to them that they need to start generating results. So he creates a contest between the salesmen and tells them that the first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado, the second prize is a set of steak knives, and the third prize will be getting fired.

This story perfectly illustrates the situation that Blitzscaling companies face when they are in a winner-take-all or winner-take-most market where success is all about speed. In such markets, you need to be the first to get to critical scale in order to have the chance to become the enduring market leader. If you do, you'll get first prize--the Cadillac. If you don't, you'll get the steak knives or worse. Winning is everything. What is important for you to understand, is that when it comes to blitzscaling speed is relative, not absolute. Many times, I’ve gotten questions like “I'm growing at 200% a year. Am I Blitzscaling?” and the answer is "it depends."  Your speed relative to your competitors is what really matters because the key to Blitzscaling is being the first.

So now think about this: When you are growing at 50% a year, but you are in a slow-growth industry and your competitors are shrinking, then you are Blitzcaling. But if you're growing at 200% a year, but you are in a rapidly expanding industry and your competitors are growing at 300% a year, then you are not Blitzscaling and you are actually falling behind.

Blitzscaling is all about doing all it takes to get the necessary speed to beat your competition, to win the first prize and grab that Cadillac. Focus on being the first to reach your goal compared to your competition and you will be Blitzscaling for real.

If you want to think more deeply about how "blitzscalable" your business is, or could be with a few modifications, check out the tools we have developed. Members in our community enjoy regular opportunities to interact with experts and fellow scaling peers to learn, test and refine the scaling strategies necessary to put them on a faster path to growth.