Fail fast, fail often. It’s the Silicon Valley mantra that has been co-opted by a thousand business gurus. The catchphrase of every pound shop Zuckerberg. It’s beloved by executives tasked with making their team more innovative, emblazoned on mugs and T-shirts in many a shared workspace.
You could argue that “fail fast, fail often” is a sensible strategy if you’re a startup running on nothing but raw ambition. Other than angel investors’ money, what have you really got to lose by launching a half-baked product? If it catches on you can always patch it on the fly, keep tweaking it until your fledgling company is gobbled up by one of the tech giants. And if it crashes and burns … well, at least you didn’t waste too much time or money on a flawed idea. That, at least, is the logic behind the “fail fast” ideology.
But if you’re a company with a loyal customer base and a reputation that rests on high-quality products, the “fail fast” principle very quickly, well, fails.
“Companies that employ this approach wind up with a frenetic, do-whatever-it-takes culture that becomes more stressed and hyperbolic than innovative,” says Dan Pontefract, a leadership strategist and author of Open to Think: Slow Down, Think Creatively, and Make Better Decisions. He believes a slower, more iterative innovation strategy leads to better results. “First, it creates a level of sanity in the organisation that speed is not the goal; innovation is the goal. Second, employees can focus on getting it right, rather than on an artificial, time-bound mindset.”
Apart from the likes of Amazon and Google, which, thanks to their vast size, can afford the odd high-profile failure, successful businesses can’t keep throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Their customers won’t stand for it – and neither will their shareholders. Failing fast and often also risks gifting your competitors the opportunity to scoop up disgruntled customers who are tired of buying products that don’t work as promised.
By contrast, a more quiet, iterative approach to innovation can lead to long-term success, rather than constant short-term failure. This approach could be likened to a scientist diligently testing their hypothesis over many months or years, constantly learning, reflecting and refining their methods until they reach a solid conclusion. It’s the path that some of the world’s most renowned innovators have followed. Think of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who spent years at CERN quietly developing what would become the world wide web. Or Sir James Dyson, who created 5,126 versions of his first dual cyclone vacuum cleaner before finally hitting upon the one that would make his fortune.
It’s also the path that Audi has followed for its first fully electric SUV, the e-tron, which it spent nearly a decade perfecting. The e-tron’s unique brake control system, for example, means it can regenerate energy while slowing. As long as the e-tron is decelerating at up to 0.3g (a standard, steady brake in a normal car), it uses the electric motors alone, recovering energy that would otherwise be lost as heat from the brakes and feeding it back into the battery. This allows it to recuperate enough energy to provide up to 30% of its driving range.
Audi also tested the e-tron to the extreme – in literal extremes. Almost 250 prototypes covered more than 3m miles, in climate conditions ranging from the frozen wastelands of Sweden to the searing heat of Africa. They also tackled energy-sapping mountains in Asia, and the fearsome curves of Germany’s Nürburgring racetrack – all to ensure that the e-tron would avoid some of the issues that have plagued competitors’ EVs.
“The Audi e-tron is a genuine pioneer,” says Peter Kössler, member of the board of management for production and logistics at Audi AG. “It features innovative technologies such as virtual exterior mirrors and combines traditional Audi qualities in handling and dynamics with technical Vorsprung that goes far beyond the car.”
Those virtual exterior mirrors, for instance, replace glass with cameras that stream a view of what’s behind the vehicle on to displays embedded within the front doors. Their futuristic design allowed Audi engineers to reduce the width of the e-tron by 15cm, reducing drag and extending the car’s range by around 1.6 miles. The virtual mirrors also create less wind noise than standard ones.
Audi’s dedication to quiet but potentially game-changing innovation also extends to the carbon-neutral Brussels plant where the e-tron is manufactured. The production line was rebuilt step-by-step to accommodate the new car. An on-site battery production facility was also constructed, with automated guided vehicles bringing the batteries to the assembly line “just in sequence” (the right parts delivered to the right assembly line in the right order).
Fail fast, fail often? That’s not the Audi way. Because, as it knows only too well, true innovation – the kind that can change entire industries – takes a little more time, a lot more thought and keen attention to detail. That way, you can ensure failure is something you learn from during the design process – not something your customers have to experience.
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