Speed is Life

Speed has always been my life. As founder and chief executive officer of the first truly global Internet media company, Lycos (now Terra Lycos), I was lucky enough to have been on the front lines of the Internet revolution-a revolution that was powered by technology but driven by speed. In fact, the story of the Internet has been one that defies conventional business time lines. It took radio 38 years and television 13 years to build audiences of 50 million in the United States. The Internet attracted this critical mass in a mere three and a half years. And the Internet has hardly been operating in a vacuum. Its impact has been felt on virtually every company in the world; it has accelerated the way business is conducted in every industry. In the five-plus years I ran Lycos, I saw the company move from concept to founding-for a while I was the first and only employee-through its initial public offering, acquisitions, and mergers, and finally through its own purchase by Terra Networks. We launched the company in April 1995. Just 9 months later, Lycos completed a public offering to become the fastest IPO (initial public offering) in NASDAQ history. Lycos evolved from a Web search engine-a gateway for users on their way to other destinations-into a hub, and from there, a comprehensive network of sites. We moved into Europe in 1996 via an alliance with the German media giant, Bertelsmann, and into Asia the next year. A series of acquisitions broadened our reach into homepage design and construction (Tripod), financial services (Quote.com), and online content (Wired Digital). We expanded into streaming media, music and videos, online shopping, investment information, and interactive entertainment. We broadened our role in Asia, Canada, and Latin America, and spun off our joint venture with Bertelsmann as Lycos Europe, a separate publicly traded business. The Lycos Network has been described as the world's largest community. In any given month, nearly half of all Internet users-some 91 million people-visit Lycos to conduct searches, construct homepages, chat, look at news, check stocks, download files, or listen to the radio. Worldwide, its 61 million registered users view more than 350 million pages every day. How did it all happen so quickly? The answer is that technology has taken us into a whole new dimension of time, what some call Internet time. It comes in three speeds: fast, faster, and instant, which means right now. With instant information and transactions, the Internet breaks all time barriers. Brevity rules. On the Internet very little lasts, whether good or bad, and the wheel is being continually reinvented. Look at human communication. The Internet has quickly developed its own slang, symbols, and shorthand. Does anyone remember what writing a thank-you note with a fountain pen was like? Now imagine that same note sent as an instant message. Not only the form, but the content will be different. Less thoughtful? Perhaps. More direct and immediate? absolutely. In this rapid new world, almost instant innovation is essential. For CEOs and managers leading the charge, this can be trying stuff. Like her counterparts at other big companies, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is probably more exhilarated than exhausted, but it's a close call. At a recent work force gathering, one H-P employee asked her, "What keeps you up at night?" Her answer: "Time. Because time, I believe, is not on any of our sides. In today's economy, faster is always better than slower, and sooner is always better than later. Always. Always. Always. That's tough discipline. It also happens to be necessary for survival. In this technology-driven world, the future is now. Seconds tick by and it is too late." Fiorina is hardly the only chief executive feeling the burn. AOL's Steve Case put it this way in a recent speech: "You know the song, 'What a Difference a Day MDavis, Bob is the author of 'Speed is Life' with ISBN 9780385501361 and ISBN 0385501366.