Smart brands know how to ‘fail fast’Smart brands know how to ‘fail fast’

In the past few weeks I went from never having heard the business term “fail fast” to hearing it everywhere.

It came up when I interviewed former McDonald’s executive Ed Rensi at his startup chain Tom & Eddie’s and when I listened to Kathy Benning of Buffalo Wild Wings address the Marketing Executives Study Group.

Even if the term strikes me as new, the concept of businesses quickly correcting course when plans go awry has been around forever. So why am I hearing more about it now? My hopeful guess is that restaurant brands are taking risks again, going after market share instead of riding out an economic recovery that remains tepid for a lot of people.

Take a look at the quick-service segment to see what I mean.

It may be too early to tell ...