Charles Schwab pioneered seamless stock trading on Internet in 1996. They went from a tiny firm to the world's largest financial services company. On their journey, first, they developed criteria – Charles Schwab's Guiding Principles – for making fast decisions. Second, they realized that they should own their competitive advantage to be able to bring financial products to the market faster than their competitors. They did so, and proved their ability to innovate faster that others. Finally, they managed to institutionalize innovation.

By late 1994, Chuck Schwab, the firm's Founder and Chairperson, and Dave Pottruck, President and co-CEO of the company believed that online trading was going to become huge and created the Project Hawk. Acting with lightning speed, Charles Schwab introduced online trading service e.schwab to the market in May 1996 – within months of conception. The company signed up 25,000 customers within two weeks – their target for the full year. Being fast made paid off for Schwab. By the start of 2000, Schwab had an average 25% market share, was handling one of four stock trades in the United States, was receiving nearly 80 million hits on pick days, had open up more than 3 million online accounts, and was doing more than $10 billion weekly in e-commerce. In 1999, market capitalization of Charles Schwab reached US$51 billion. On January 1, 2000 the market capitalization of Charles Schwab surpassed that of Merrill Lynch, and Schwab became the world's largest financial services company.

Charles Schwab took his company from being a one-man startup to the world’s largest financial services firm in record-setting time.

How? He wanted to build a fast company, one that could respond to changes in the market before they even happened, and to maintain its velocity throughout. He believed that by following a strict process and adhering to strict requirements, he would be well-prepared ahead of time in order to act with lightening speed. So, Schwab established 9 guiding principles for his company, and checked every strategic move against them before proceeding. These guiding principles allowed Charles Schwab and his management team to make quick decisions. Instead of having to go through a complex process in order to determine his company’s next strategic step, he simply had to ask one question: Does it fit our guiding principles?

Acting with lightning speed in accordance with Charles Schwab's Guiding Principles – always own the core technology; reinvent the business; and constantly improve what you do, – the company made fast decisions and was able to introduce online trading service e.schwab to the market within months of conception... More