Shattered vases. Upturned pots. Crumbs and toys strewn all over the floor. That pretty much captures what my house looks like these days, with my toddler son now on the move. He travels with so much speed and purpose that you might say it’s his life’s motto to “move fast and break things.”
That motto has been the prevailing logic of Western business in the 21st century. And while it has generated tremendous wealth and spurred rapid innovation, notably in the tech world, it has also led many leaders to mistakenly equate velocity with value.
This week, Kellogg’s David Schonthal discusses how a business in Japan found enduring success following a more-tempered, deliberate approach. Plus, why the cute aesthetic is having a moment.
A master of one
More than a century ago, 26-year-old Shozaburo Shimano rented out a small corner of a factory in Sakai, Japan, to build bicycle parts. Word quickly spread about the high quality of his work and he eventually grew his business into a full-fledged corporation, which he called Shimano.
As the years passed, most of Shimano’s competitors diversified their product offerings. Shimano, too, had many opportunities to expand into additional sporting goods and mechanical parts or even other types of markets, but the company held its ground.
It obsessed over refining its skill in a deliberately narrow category instead, developing an expertise so deep that aspiring competitors who tried to enter that part of the market found themselves outclassed—not by Shimano’s scale but by the sheer density of its knowledge. The result, explains Schonthal, has been one of the most dominant competitive positions in modern industry.
“The brand rarely advertises. It doesn’t need to,” says Schonthal, a clinical professor of strategy. “It is the product of a hundred years of choosing depth over breadth, every single time the choice was available.”
Many modern companies, especially startups, are ready to change course at the first sign of friction. But companies like Shimano that have a deep understanding of their strengths can tell when it should stay put and when it’s time to pivot.
When the Covid-19 pandemic led to an unexpected boom in e-bike sales, Shimano was ready to adapt. It developed an AI-powered sensor for regular bikes that automatically shifts gears based on a rider’s pedaling cadence, torque, and speed—allowing riders to climb inclines almost as easily as they could on an e-bike.
“Master one thing completely and you will never be lost when the world turns,” Schonthal says. “Depth is what makes reinvention possible.”
Read more in Fortune.
