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Fast Follower

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Instead of burning resources exploring, you watch the early movers, learn from their mistakes, and move in once the path is clearer.

The key is timing:

  • move too late and you’re irrelevant
  • move too early and you take the same risks as the pioneer

Fast followers excel in operational execution. They take someone else’s idea and do it better, faster, cheaper. Often underestimated, this is the dominant strategy in many mature industries.

  • Experimentation (Attacking): You watch others’ experiments, then systematise what’s working.
  • Undermining barriers to entry (Attacking): Use the fast follow to simplify entry into previously high-friction markets.
  • Co-opting (Ecosystem): Copy early-mover ecosystems and siphon off value.
  • Embrace & Extend (Ecosystem): Enter late, but extend the offer in a way that outperforms the original.
  • Pricing policy (Market): Undercut pioneers with better efficiency once the path is clear.