Decision Making: How Being Slow to Act Can Help You

Being slow to react to new development, trends and disruptive products is usually frowned upon in industries where quickly responding to the changes and anything new is considered to be critical for continued relevance and profit. This rule may not hold true in all occasions because there are advantages being slow to react can give when applied in a strategic manner. This is also true for almost any type of industry.

Delayed Action Gives More Time to Study the Latest Development

When something is trending or when something new comes on board, the temptation to adjust hastily may lead those in the helm of affairs to commit errors they can only fully grasp in retrospect. You get more time to study the trend when action is delayed. Ignoring trends can be dangerous but keeping an eye on them while you place a hold on any responsive action will naturally give you time to study the trend.

This could make you project better than the competition that quickly jump in because of the fear of being left behind. Delayed action can bring up new characteristics of the latest trend within you industry that those that followed blindly would have naturally missed.

Gives you the Ability to React Intelligently

Delayed action allows you to formulate a better response than those that jumped in too early. This could be just all you need to make the difference between your organization and the competition. Reacting intelligently to a new development does not usually happen when you are running and thinking at the same time. Running and thinking implies that you will not have time to study and react but most importantly, is shows that you are being pulled by the waves rather than swimming strongly towards a set goal even in the midst of perceived chaos.

The chaos could be a new product that is completely disruptive. Delayed action could make you recognize areas where you can shelter and tapping into that will shield you from the vagaries of this disruptive product so that your product is secure in the market.

It could be in the form of a great promo by the competition. Joining the bandwagon of matching promos by others could become counterproductive. Delayed action gives you the ability to react create a response that will set you apart from the rest of the industry thereby boosting your brand.

Forces the Other Party to Make the First Move

In an industry where every decision could make or mar the fortunes of your business, making the first move may be very unproductive. The first move forces you to face the brunt of the challenge and those who delay their action get to learn from your experience. If the move backfires, they get to know what not to do. Delayed action places pressure on the competition to act.

Produces Better Counter Response

You get to see two to three steps ahead when you deliberately delay action. Your counter measure is more effective because you may have recognized in weak spot in this latest trend, product or service that is threatening your set business objectives.

While those who jumped in early would have to respond to every wind that blows, making them to dissipate energy and resources, you get to measure your punch and know where and when to strike. This advantage can make you leapfrog those who rushed out responses because you already know the things to implement on a systematic basis. Your response could be strategically shrouded so that the completion will not see where you are heading with what you are doing. They on the other hand would have been left exposed because they rushed into it.

A better counter response to a new development always includes the surprise factor, as people will not see you coming. This can only be done when you take delayed action as opposed to rushing headlong with the first idea that comes up.

Saves you Money

Resources are spent when responding to a new trend or disruptive product. Delayed action saves you money. The delay would have given you time to respond and this will make you to spend less in executing your response plan. Meanwhile the completion that jumped in would spend more as they keep to applying different responses at any given time.

 

There will always be something new in the horizon. This is how business thrives on competition. Companies have become history because there response was just too early. However, delayed action can make you see clearly the impact a disruptive product can have on your business and make you come to the decision to negotiate a deal rather than fight. You would be able to tell if the battle would be lost because you delayed your action.

There are disruptive businesses that have been bought over by established players in the same industry even when it was clear that had the company refused to sell, they would have eventually surpassed the established brands. It takes delayed action to be able to pull off such a feat and present a compelling reason for such people to sell. The principle of delayed action can be applied to any form of business and life in general.

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