In some industries like travel, the current economic headwinds are so strong that companies that do the best job of tacking into the wind can achieve or maintain market leadership, even if they are simply staying in place, or giving ground more slowly than others.Ĭonsider Airbnb, which faces some remarkably strong headwinds. But the principle of increasing your lead over the competition, rather than focusing on an absolute growth target, can apply, even during these desperate times. Of course, back in 2018, we did not foresee a global pandemic and associated depression. As we wrote in 2018, “In a rapidly growing market, a company that grows 100% per year might be losing share during turbulent times, a company that grows 50% per year might be gaining enough share to achieve market dominance.” What matters is that you win the race, not whether or not you set a new world record. These factors affect how you implement blitzscaling, but they don’t change or invalidate the basic strategy. Even if you can raise money, you may find that your company is less valuable today than it was a year ago. Spending is down, as is the stock market, and it’s harder to raise money. The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic poses major challenges to businesses, especially startups. Blitzscaling can be misapplied, such as when WeWork spent billions to become the biggest player in a market without true winner-take-most dynamics, but so can any strategy. It is a risky strategy, but it is the right strategy for outracing the other players when competing for enduring leadership in a winner-take-most market. Yet if we are to rebuild our economy after this crisis, we will need every available tool and technique, and that most certainly includes blitzscaling.īlitzscaling is the pursuit of growth by prioritizing speed over efficiency in the face of uncertainty.
Matters of business can seem inconsequential compared to tragedy at this scale. Meanwhile, the United States has already lost more lives to the disease than the entire Vietnam War and unemployment is at its highest level since the Great Depression. Suddenly, capital is harder to come by, customers aren’t buying, and none of us can leave our homes. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to batter the world, many have declared an end to the “Unicorn Era” in general and blitzscaling in particular.
0 kommentar(er)
