Scaled Organizations Can Take More Risks

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Small organizations have the capacity to stomach risks without them becoming existential threats. But counter intuitively, that doesn't mean a small stratum shouldn't take risks. To scale advantage, you should still be reading your road signs, but you have to read them faster the competition. At this phase, the most important sign of all is minimum speed, 100 miles per hour. If you bet wrong, you've failed, but at least you've failed fast. And if you're right, you can gain first mover.

If you want to capitalize on an opportunity that you think could change the world, you need to drive full speed toward it. Back in 1994, when Ajaz Ahmed dropped out of college to start one of the first digital ad agencies, AKQA, he knew he was at the cusp of the next revolution in tech. And if he wanted to be part of it, he’d have to move fast. Ahmed shares stories about how a band of 21-year-old dropouts built the agency from ground up, winning over early clients by building prototypes ahead of the competition. He dives into how his inner voice demanding him to “get big or die trying” led him to transform AKQA into a global agency with thousands of employees and the biggest clients in the world, like Nike, Virgin, and Usher.

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