Fast/forward (Birkenshaw and Ridderstrale)

Julian Birkinshaw and Jonas Ridderstråle’s Fast/Forward argues that broad access to data weakens information alone as a source of advantage. Organisations must still analyse well, but they also need the attention, judgment and confidence to act.

When to use it

Use the model to test whether yours has become a “linear organisation in an exponential world”—able to produce analysis, yet too slow to recognise and pursue emerging opportunities.

Origins

The model was developed by Birkinshaw and Ridderstråle as a response to information abundance and rapid change. It builds on Herbert Simon’s observation, made almost 50 years before the book, that an abundance of information consumes a scarce resource: the recipient’s attention. The authors connect that attention problem with organisation design, arguing that bureaucracy and expertise-based meritocracy need to be complemented by adhocracy—coordination around opportunities and action.

What it is

Fast/forward combines decisive action with emotional conviction. It rejects neither evidence nor expertise. Instead, it asks leaders to recognise when more analysis will improve a decision and when uncertainty is irreducible, making a bounded experiment or reversible choice more valuable.

Imagine a leadership team receiving 50 reports about a changing market. The constraint may no longer be data collection; it may be the capacity to select the consequential signal, create a shared interpretation and commit resources in time.

The model distinguishes two qualities:

• Fast: alert, agile, experimental and able to decide.
• Forward: proactive, opportunity-seeking and capable of creating meaning and emotional connection for customers and employees.

Fact-based decisions remain appropriate when evidence can resolve the issue. Other choices—especially novel products, business models or strategic commitments—cannot be reduced to a calculation. Emotional conviction helps people act under uncertainty, but it must remain open to feedback rather than becoming confidence without evidence.

How to use it

Apply fast/forward to strategy, organisation and leadership.