Faster, cheaper, worse: December 20, 1999 issue of New Thinking

December 20, 1999 New Thinking:
Faster, cheaper, worse

Website content management

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December 20, 1999

Faster, cheaper, worse

By Gerry McGovern

“Faster, cheaper, better” is the new motto for NASA. But after their disastrous Mars campaign they might change it to, “Faster, cheaper, worse.” In 2000, the Internet industry is going to have quite a few ‘landing on Mars’ episodes.

Recently, we launched Adornis.com, a major website for fine jewellery, which we also have a shareholding in. Built in 18 weeks, Adornis.com is a real ‘clicks and mortar’ undertaking. In order to meet such an aggressive schedule, Nua brought together a team of the industry’s leading experts as strategic partners with the goal to build the industry’s finest and fastest e-business platform.

This included Lucent Technologies for the network development, Oracle for the Internet database infrastructure, Sun Microsystems and Netscape for the application server and Federal Express as the fulfillment partner. Top executives from the luxury goods sector were selected. A 24X7 tele-support centre and a special warehouse in Memphis was put in place. Adornis.com sought to establish solid foundations for future scale and functionality, investing some USD15 million in infrastructure.

It was pressure, pressure, pressure but we pulled it off. The website is selling high-end items at high-end prices. Last week the Richemont Group (Cartier, Alfred Dunhill, Montblanc, Lancel, Piaget, Vacheron Constantin and Baume & Mercier) became a major investor, stating that, “Adornis.com’s technological and luxury branding expertise has established one of the first presentations of luxury branding on the Internet.”

We had to move fast because that’s the nature of the Internet today – get in quick while the opportunity is hot. However, while today we boast about the fact that we did it all in 18 weeks, this time next year I’m sure we will not be pushing the idea of speed of execution so much.

To build a real business takes time. To build something that will last takes time. To build a machine that will land on Mars takes incredible expertise, incredible planning. NASA is an awesome organization whose professionalism would put most of us to shame. But it would seem that they’ve been bitten by the speed virus that has so inculcated modern society.

Everything must be done fast these days and if you can’t do it fast you’re out of the game. I heard a commentator on the radio say that NASA were retiring experts and bringing in more and more younger scientists who, while undoubtedly brilliant, didn’t have that vital experience that only time can bring. Very little positive is said about Russia today, but the commentator made the point that the Russian space program was not making the same mistakes because they were using experienced people.

I have always thought about the Internet, not as a technology, but as a new ‘space’, a new frontier. In our urge to race across this new frontier and claim as much as we can, many of us are building dodgy vehicles. I suppose the pioneers have no choice but to get out there first with whatever they have because getting there first is still what it’s all about.

However, as the Internet matures you will find an increasingly number of dot com businesses having to throw away much of what they have built and start again with solid foundations and long-term plans.

This is the last New Thinking for 1999. I hope you have enjoyed the writing and I thank you for having subscribed. I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a hopeful new millennium, and for those of my readers who don’t celebrate either I wish you good will. The next New Thinking will be published on January 3rd 2000.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Predictions for 2000
Previous issue: The PC ceiling
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In our urge to race across this new frontier and claim as much as we can, many of us are building dodgy vehicles.