In a technology business, a company that establishes an early lead may set a standard and end up scooping most of the market.

ECONOMIST: What it takes to come top in technology

If you ask most people, they'd tell you there's nothing wrong with the standard classroom set-up of a blackboard and chalk, or a whiteboard and dry-erase markers.

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With its elaborate system of narrow passes, viaducts and rock-hewn tunnels, the Swiss rail network has set the standard for more than a century, since its engineers first laid tracks up and down the steepest slopes and seemingly defied the impossible.

BBC: Swiss movement