The Fast Seconds

Being first with something often has major commercial benefits, but it’s also the riskiest position to be in, especially as the biggest risk for new product development is market failure. It’s a sad but true situation that most new product ideas or inventions don’t succeed in the hands of their originators, but in the hands of the person who takes the concept, perhaps modifies and improves it, adds value and can deliver it at a competitive price. The ‘Fast Second’ strategy, as it is known, involves much lower risk, but requires a business to carefully watch the marketplace and be quick to spot potential successes.

One of the best known ‘Fast Seconds’ was Henry Ford. He didn’t invent the automobile, but he spotted the need to make it more accessible to the general public. He took the previously laborious and highly customized production process and ‘innovated’ the mass production line, in order to standardise the product and therefore lower its cost. Fleming discovered Penicillin, but it was Florey who found how to produce it in commercial quantities; both received the Nobel prize.

Similarly, in the Australian travel industry a handful of adventurous people had been undertaking their own outback holiday experiences well before the 1960s. It took Melbourne-based Bill King to spot the market desire, improve its delivery through packaging, adding value and a greater level of comfort, convenience and safety, in order to make it an affordable experience for ordinary people. Bill enjoyed a market edge for many years, but as the product became commodified, he sold the business to Myer Page and Geoff Mc Geary, to become part of the Australian Pacific Tours conglomerate.

The concept of ‘Fast Seconds’ should hold much appeal to business - the ability to latch onto a new idea, improve it, get it to market quickly and enjoy the often temporary market edge, before it inevitably becomes commodified and loses value.