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210 THE PRACTICE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

I

BEING “FUSTEST WITH THE MOSTEST”

Being “Fustest with the Mostest” was how a Confederate cav-
alry general in America’s Civil War explained consistently win-
ning his battles. In this strategy the entrepreneur aims at leader-
ship, if not at dominance of a new market or a new industry.
Being “Fustest with the Mostest” does not necessarily aim at cre-
ating a big business right away, though often this is indeed the
aim. But it aims from the start at a permanent leadership position.
Being “Fustest with the Mostest” is the approach that many
people consider the entrepreneurial strategy par excellence.
Indeed, if one were to go by the popular books on entrepreneurs,*
one would conclude that being “Fustest with the Mostest” is the
only entrepreneurial strategy—and a good many entrepreneurs,
especially the high-tech ones, seem to be of the same opinion.
They are wrong, however. To be sure, a good many entrepreneurs
have indeed chosen this strategy. Yet being “Fustest with the Mostest”
is not even the dominant entrepreneurial strategy, let alone the one with
the lowest risk or the highest success ratio. On the contrary, of all entre-
preneurial strategies it is the greatest gamble. And it is unforgiving,
making no allowances for mistakes and permitting no second chance.
But if successful, being “Fustest with the Mostest” is highly
rewarding.
Here are some examples to show what this strategy consists of and
what it requires.
Hoffmann-LaRoche of Basel, Switzerland, has for many years been
the world’s largest and in all probability its most profitable pharmaceu-
tical company. But its origins were quite humble: until the mid1920s,
Hoffmann-LaRoche was a small and struggling manufacturing chemist,
making a few textile dyes. It was totally overshadowed by the huge
German dye-stuff makers and two or three much bigger chemical firms
in its own country. Then it gambled on the newly discovered vitamins at
a time when the scientific world still could not quite accept

*E.g., George Gilder’s The Spirit of Enterprise (New York: Simon & Schuster,
1984), perhaps the most readable recent example of the genre.