57. In business, there is a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive (竞争的) strategy（策略）and how fast the company actually moves. 59The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. 57Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.In our study of 343 businesses, 57the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up “improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating income over a three-year period.58How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operation speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.In our study, 59higher performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look and learn. By contrast (相比而言)，performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time， paid too much attention to improving efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn’t develop team spirit among their employees, and had little time thinking about changes.Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.What does the underlined part “gain an edge” in Paragraph 2 mean?
(A) Increase the speed.
(B) Get an advantage.
(C) Reach the limit.
(D) Set a goal.