Idea Vs Execution - Formula for Success

Have you come across colleagues, team members who keep saying that they have some brilliant ideas? Many a times they say, “if someone can adopt my brilliant ideas, they can turnaround the business”. Many are grossly mistaken that having brilliant ideas is a great virtue and people with such ideas are assets to the organization. Brilliant ideas are ok. But more than the nature of idea, the execution matters a lot. Let us see this simple grid, where various kinds of ideas and the kind of execution are given some score.

As you see here, an awful idea is given a score of -1. A weak idea is given a score of 1. So on… The brilliant idea has got a maximum score of 20. The brilliant idea is just 20 times stronger than a weak idea. On the other side, execution levels are valued in dollars. A weak execution may bring a business of $1000, while a great execution may be worth of $100,000. The simple formula is idea X the level of execution is the business value. You can try various combinations.

Now let us see the scenario 1, where a brilliant idea which has a score of 20 is taken for execution. Now let us consider that this brilliant idea is executed with less vigor. i.e a weak execution. Since the weak execution is worth of $1000, the value of the solution would be 20 x $1000 = $20,000. One may feel happy about this easy launch of the the brilliant idea. Is it a good strategy? or do we have a better strategy?

Now scenario #2…. Instead of a brilliant idea, a weak idea which has a score of 1 is taken for consideration. Imagine it is executed in a brilliant manner. What do we mean by brilliant execution? Flawless, seamless, scalable, customer friendly executions. For example, if it is a web based solution, it never crashes; there is no latency; it is able to withstand any load, no security issues. Though the weak idea has a score of just 1, the net worth of business is 10 m$ since the brilliant execution is worth of 10 m$.

If I give an example for such a strategy, you may easily understand.

Instagram was launched in 2010. At that time it was just an app for uploading, downloading and sharing of pictures taken in a mobile. Nothing more. A very simple idea. But was powerfully executed. With 2 months there were 1 million users. In one year it had 10 million users. What is the secret for such a simple idea? Just the brilliant executions. Imagine even if 10% of the users upload or download the pictures at any point of time. i.e 1 million users. Powerful algorithms were used used so that none of the users were able to see any kind of latency. In 2017, Facebook bought Instagram for a value of 1 Billion $. Today Instagram has more than 1 billion users. That is the power of brilliant execution.

So, keep in mind. Anyone can come out with a brilliant idea. But the execution matters a lot. Even when you are sharing an idea or suggestion in the Idea Junction or Idea Box in your organization, share as much information regarding the execution as possible. If not, there is every possibility that your idea may get rejected.

See you with more stories on ideas and innovations in the coming episodes. Bye!