Think fast in the first Think Quarterly of 2012

In the amount of time it takes you to read this blog post, roughly 382 Android phones will be activated, 250,000+ words will be written on Blogger and more than 48 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube. The world is moving faster than ever before, bringing us instant access and split-second connections to people and information.

Speed is important in technology, but equally essential in business. Consumer expectations are rising as we learn to take speed for granted; today’s email is tomorrow’s snail mail. In our hyper-real-time world, nanoseconds matter—which means we need to question old assumptions. How will we respond to consumer expectations as the demand for instant access to everything intensifies? How will we keep pace in a world that moves at web speed?

The new Speed issue of Think Quarterly explores these questions and more. Don Meij, CEO of Domino’s Pizza in Australia, comments on what it means to be first to market on mobile. Moving fast into mobile has allowed his business to differentiate against a crowd of competitors. By integrating mobile early Don claims that they made a step change in providing the fastest, most convenient ordering process possible.

The current issue also features Bom Kim, CEO and founder of Korean deals site, Coupang, who explains that it’s more about being the best at responding to the market than being the first to do something. Google’s SVP of Engineering Urs Hölzle shares our efforts to speed up the Internet, while Astro Teller, Director of New Products at Google, dreams about the amazing inventions these improvements will unleash.

We hope you enjoy the issue. Let us know what you think.

Posted by James Toepfer, Marketing Manager, Google Australia