Paananen: Focusing on competitors prevents a company from ever leading
Ilkka Paananen · 20VC: Supercell Founder Ilkka Paananen on What it Means To Be "The Least Powerful CEO", His Relationship To Wealth and Risk & How To Create Environments of Safety Where Your Team Can Be Their Best and Most Ambitious Selves · Feb 1, 2021 · at 14:53
Ilkka Paananen, co-founder and CEO of Supercell, addresses whether founders should closely monitor competitors or focus purely on executing their own unique product vision.
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“If you follow competition, the risk is that you may become, like, overly reactive, like, what Happens around you, and essentially, the best you can be is just to be a fast follower, but if you're a fast follower, then by definition, you will always follow somebody else. You will never, ever lead”
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Paananen: An absence of failure signals a lack of ambition and innovation
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