First Mover Advantage

Business school gospel that being first to market wins, contradicted by Google beating Yahoo, Facebook beating Myspace, and the iPhone crushing Palm, proving that execution and timing matter far more than being earliest. Compared to the average market entry strategy, first movers fail 47% more often than fast followers, with only 15% of first-in-market firms maintaining leadership after five years, as seen in its defeat by smarter latecomers like Google.