I would say a good idea is 5% of the equation

[eliquid]

Notsure what a VA is but make your debate please but i think that statement is pure ignorance and is laughable.

Ignorance and laughable?

You're on an entrepreneurial forum where business and outsourced help ( as mentioned in my reply ) are commonly brought up. VA's are a related term for both outsourced topics and, in general, entrepreneurial topics.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt though you have never heard it called a VA, but maybe heard its long form def. of Virtual Assistant. Not to be condescending, but you should know these terms. That could be labeled as ignorance and laughable, so watch what you type to people. People in glass houses shouldn't lob stones...

Maybe your slow lane thinking that lead you to a 40 hour a week job has cattled you into thinking that executing 300% on a tired and worn out idea will get you somewhere. That's basically what employers want you to do, execute and execute more so they can keep you busy and making them money.

I should know, I've been there before in my past with some of the best in upper management.

A good product ( "idea" ) is worth much more and can many times sell itself. Look at patents and selling licensing. Many of those are just "ideas".

Can you show me an example of just selling off pure "executing" though that really blows the lids off anything? I mean really grinding on just 1 thing over and over and that lead to their success? If you can, I can prob show you what really made their success instead.

Can you create a "Blue Ocean Strategy" with a good idea/angle, YES. Can you do the same with executing, NO.

You're the one that mentioned you have this idea you're working on for so long. Have you ever thought maybe your idea is bad? Did that ever cross your mind? How will executing on that bad idea at 110% for years get you anywhere when no one wants it or doesnt find it better than your competitor?

Having a UVP will though when you execute on that. The UVP is the "good idea" part. Creating value is the "good idea" part. See Tim Ferris here with Stephen Key -> http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/11...00-companies-part-ii-plus-hacking-japan-tips/ for selling ideas and what you can do with ideas.

Simply executing on a bad idea will get you nowhere. It might get you mediocre if you find a sucker though.

I can come up with a great idea that has a UVP and gives value, and then hire VA's and outsourced workers to create my site and ads, get a manufacturer in China with the help of agents in China to develop the product, and then sell it off still in the idea stage to a larger company.

Sometimes drinking the kool-aid that mainstream media feeds you isn't good. Your own experience can be flawed too.

I can make $1MM Net Profit in six months with just ads and another person's products based on "great ideas" I use for angles in my ads and then have a VA make those ads and post them. If I didn't have a good idea/angle and tried to buy ads on FB, I'd get slaughtered even though I'm "executing" away and grinding it.

I can create a SaaS that disrupts a very crowded vertical so bad my competitors are running to copy its features and bid against my brand name and its all based on a couple of really great ideas with execution happening in the background with a partner and myself afterward. I have people offering me lots of money to just buy me out in this "great idea" I came up with. I could have easily just executed the coding on this with some hired help.

Executing didn't do much for me, but great ideas did. I can always outsource the execution, you cant outsource great ideas.

Should I keep going?

 

[Andy Black]

For those who come up with endless ideas but never execute, the advice is to just execute on something - anything. Get out of the echo chamber of your own head, and get stuff done.

For those *already* executing, the idea/model/lane becomes the most important.

Different levels of advice for different people?

I guess it boils down to whether you're getting stuff done or not?

 

[Walter Hay]

I don't intend joining the debate, but my experience might contribute something to the subject.

My first, highly successful business was a result of FIRST: Necessity, and SECOND: A great idea. ("Necessity is the mother of invention.") THIRD: Execution. I worked extremely hard and employed my proven sales skills (totally unappreciated by my former employer), and got the business off the ground within a week with capital that amounted to just over half my former weekly wage. By the end of that week I had received more than enough money to feed my family.

While running that business for 20 years, I maintained a Good Ideas file. Whenever I thought of a good idea I wrote out the basic concept and filed it. When I sold the business I reviewed my file and selected the one that a) appeared to have the best chance of success, b) was in an industry that interested me, and c) fitted my experience.

I repeated the process. This time not because of necessity, but because I enjoyed what I was doing. In my execution I again worked very hard, and success followed.

Record your ideas, even if like some of mine they come to you at 2 am. Don't roll over and go back to sleep.

Walter

 

[snowbank]

I'm realizing how ridiculous it is to think that ideas have any value

you're very wrong.

go start a bad idea with great execution, and i'll start a good idea with 'meh' execution. you will lose badly.

 

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[GIlman]

The thing I find hard about this discussion. Is that ideas matter either way. But so does execution.

Either you are an ideas guy and you create a great idea and build a company around it through execution.

OR

You are an execution guy and you start with a weak idea, execute, refine, and through execution discover a great idea.

I think it's retarded to try and separate the two. Either way you gotta either have or pivot to a great idea. and either way you gotta execute to realize the benefit of that idea.

Ideas matter, but so does execution. Stop mental masterbation get and either execute your great idea or execute and pivot until you land on a great idea.

Splitting hairs on if the chicken or the egg is more important is pointless.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[vinylawesome]

Interesting Debate. This debate reminded me of an article I read years ago by Derek Sivers. I tend to agree with it, below.

............................................................................................................
Ideas are just a multiplier of execution
2009-07-28

It's so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.)

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

Explanation:

AWFUL IDEA= -1
WEAK IDEA= 1
SO-SO IDEA= 5
GOOD IDEA= 10
GREAT IDEA= 15
BRILLIANT IDEA= 20
-----------------
NO EXECUTION= $1
WEAK EXECUTION= $1000
SO-SO EXECUTION= $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION= $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION= $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION= $10,000,000
To make a business, you need to multiply the two.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.

The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

That's why I don't want to hear people's ideas.

I'm not interested until I see their execution.

Source: https://sivers.org/multiply

 

[SteveO]

Exactly... The fact that every VC I've ever met would tell you that they care MUCH more about the team than the idea tells me that the people who vote with their money believe that execution is more important than the idea.

Anyone who believes otherwise has never tried to raise money...

My banker specifically stated that they would not loan money on a golf course. I was the reason for the loan. They made the loan because of their trust even though they knew I had no golf course experience.

 

[SteveO]

In all reality it depends on the business you are in and how you execute. Some have great ideas but can't get them off the ground. Others have plain old vanilla ventures that are all over the place but carry out an excellent implementation of a process.

@JScott and @eliquid are brilliant individuals. Both are correct and I can easily live with that.

 

[DaRK9]

I think the biggest issue is some people think an idea alone is worth money. Execution is nowhere in their sights.

You see this alot with investor funded start-ups. "I have an idea, therefore I will draw a salary before we have a product because it was my idea."

I had this exact "idea" about 4 years ago. It's still in my notes.
https://www.mtailor.com/

So my idea was in fact totally worthless to me. Idea/Execution are inherently tied together for anything successful.

Idea is 100%, Execution is 100%.

Also, the "idea" is more of a path. You don't have to be original.

 

[Formless]

Context is key here.

When someone says "Ideas are shit - execution is king" - you've gotta ask yourself what the story behind it is.

Chances are, the real story and lesson is:

"You've been bumbling around, stuck in analysis paralysis, never done shit, never sold anything. You don't need to learn anymore. You need to get over the fear of doing stuff. You need to test your ideas and take action. You may have lots of ideas, but what's your bank account looking like? Ideas are shit - execution is king."

-- The audience for such a message is people who have a problem taking action.

But if taking action is no longer a problem for you, Then "ideas" (the problem you're solving, business model, organisational map, lead/traffic sources, conversion methods, hard and soft systems etc.) start to really matter. That's where the person slogging away at a shitty business model will not fix it through "executing harder." Technique matters.

So really, once you dig into the story behind both statements, you'll see that they are not contradictions. They are just different medicines for different ailments.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Obviously the semantics of "idea" needs to be agreed upon before one can debate the veracity of the idea itself.

• I have an idea for a social network!
  ^^^ That's worth about .01%.
• I have an idea for a social network and here's how it would work, propagate, grow, and be funded! ^^^ That's worth a bit more.

 

[Kak]

I firmly believe that on average a person only rises as far as they can lead. Leadership is, in my experience, the most important part of business.

Sacrifice and perseverance is another very important aspect. The more you are willing to sacrifice, the more money you'll probably make.

Idea? Yeah, probably 5 percent of the equation even though a good one won't hurt.

 

[Kak]

Nothing has changed for me. I honestly haven't had any good ideas in the past two years, but I continue to execute on my average-idea businesses (and start some new ones) and I continue to make a lot of money...

There is another avenue that I never saw discussed here... Executing your way to new adaptations of the original idea and putting yourself in position to notice, and seize new (even entirely new) opportunities ONLY comes from execution. You won't notice this shit if you aren't turning over rocks.

 

[biophase]

Just wanted to jump in here... I am on the side that execution and business intelligence trumps ideas.

Let's say I wanted to start a burger restaurant. Not exactly a new great idea. But make the food good, put it in a good location, provide great customer service and value and you've got a business that's probably making money.

From an ecommerce standpoint, since I have experience in it, I believe that I can launch a store in almost any niche and make it profitable. Again, it's not about the product. It's about your store design, it's social presence, how you get traffic, etc...

I'm sure other people had the idea of digging tunnels underground and driving cars through them before Elon Musk did. But others probably didn't have the means or the knowledge to start a company of that magnitude.

A long time ago someone mentioned to me that it would be cool to make cell phones charge wirelessly. Yes it would be, he had no knowledge of electronics or physics. What good was his idea? He had no idea if it was even technologically feasible. I bet he probably goes around telling people about his idea that Android or Apple stole from him.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Do you have any resources or suggestions that you credit for becoming a better negotiator?

I think he's written a book on the subject...

Search Amazon ... Negotiation, J. Scott, although focused on RE, I'm sure it pertains to any negotiation.

EDIT: Indeed...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0998848204/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

 

[million$$$smile]

I think young entrepreneurs overly focus on creating a new product rather than just taking an existing product and creating a new application or use for it.

Unless one has been gifted with an unusual flair for creating a completely unique product, it seems to me, (at least in my limited experience) that it usually is easier to take an existing product or system/process and refine it or find another application for the existing product.

There are incalculable great ideas that lay in the graveyard of failure, and mediocre ideas that have merited great success.

For me, I would much rather focus on delivering a new application to an existing product/process/system than trying to create a completely new product to the marketplace.

I don't mean a me-too product, but a new application for an existing product and then refine it to a new or broader audience. That to me is where new ideas come into play.

The application of existing products/processes/systems. And of course, the execution of the new idea.

I have been able to do this multiple times and even have a thread on the inside of a few simple products that I market in a new unique way and they have been highly successful.

Existing product + new application/process + execution = a new idea

In summary, most new ideas are built on existing ideas and applying or executing it in a new way.

I don't believe there is one resolute recipe for everyone. Whatever works for you may not necessarily work for me...

 

[eliquid]

I wrote briefly about this almost 1 year ago here -> http://leanvertising.com/ideas-are-a-dime-a-dozen-is-a-lie-told-by-losers/948

Got a couple comments with examples of "Pro Execution", but overall my message is the same on my blog. Even the comment on my blog about "pro" execution and the Wright brothers comes down to a good idea actually, even though the comment poster didn't see it.

I took this from the NPS.gov about the Wright brothers:

The brothers knew that the solutions to lift and propulsion needed only refining, but no one had achieved lateral control. Rejecting the principle of inherent stability - the conventional wisdom - they wanted control to depend on the pilot. Wilbur hit upon the idea of warping the wings - sparked by his observation of birds and the idle twisting of a box - to rotate the wings and stabilize flight. They tested wing-warping - the forerunner of ailerons - on a 5-foot biplane kite.

The great idea? -> they wanted control to depend on the pilot

Another great idea? - > Wilbur hit upon the idea of warping the wings - sparked by his observation of birds and the idle twisting of a box - to rotate the wings and stabilize flight. They tested wing-warping - the forerunner of ailerons - on a 5-foot biplane kite.

The execution could have been done by someone else in their bicycle shop. A lot of the execution was done by others before them that failed.

The idea is what got them off the ground. No pun intended.

If they would have executed on the same old ideas of those before them, they would have crashed and burned most likely since that is what everyone else was doing at the time.

 

[GoGetter24]

Good thread to bump.

But it really isn't 5%. It's more like 40%. If we're truly talking about a good idea, one that's been confirmed against the market, and is truly well conceived and one that you've thoroughly challenged the merits of, then it's very important.

Everyone likes to say the glib "fail quickly" stuff. But it's a very unwise way to behave. You want the risk of the idea failing to be as small as possible.

Every idea execution has costs. Each six month block of your life you throw into executing an idea that fails is 6 months of stress, long hours, and age lost, that you can't get back.

Being frivolous about failure is very foolish. You should reasonably expect failure. But you should do everything in your power to prevent executing on an idea that was doomed from the start.

The Thomas Edison stuff was an abject lie. He did not construct 10,000 different light bulbs. Nobody has the true number of prototypes he built. The exact quote is this:
"I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed three thousand different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. My chief difficulty, as perhaps you know, was in constructing the carbon filament, the incandescence of which is the source of the light." -Edison
"I said: 'Isn't it a shame that with the tremendous amount of work you have done you haven't been able to get any results?' Edison turned on me like a flash, and with a smile replied: 'Results! Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! I know several thousand things that won't work!'" -Edison

That gives no data on how many actual prototypes he built, how much of his personal time he spent building them, how many people he was by that point able to employ to do work for him (it was after he'd already released his phonograph & microphone), what the costs per failed design were in time and money.

It's 40% idea, 60% execution. We're not machines. We can't continuously execute failed ideas without bearing the costs.

 

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[juan917]

For a successful business. And the 95% is all in execution. I've been working on this "idea" of mine that I've had for so long that I'm realizing how ridiculous it is to think that ideas have any value or merit. It's something that's been told to me many times but now I'm living it.

Anyway, just wanted to share
- Good luck on your ventures!

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

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[Maxjohan]

Like with everything. It depends. Ideas can be powerful if they are truly innovative.

An example would be in the early 2000s Internet porn. Every porn pay site back then, hade the same boring pay site tours.

In came the Bang Bros. They had a story to every site they made. Most of the time it had to do with them picking up girls outside and filming the process. (fake, though)

This was completely new. They literally cleaned up. They made tons of money by being innovative.

 

[eliquid]

I disagree.

A good idea to me is 95% and execution is 5%.

I could make a good debate for this. In the end, you do need both though.

However, with so many people touting VA's and outsourced help.... execution really isn't anything unless you have the good idea ( angle, UVP, etc )

A $5 an hour VA can execute for you. Executing on the wrong/bad idea will get you nowhere.

 

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[eliquid]

you're very wrong.

go start a bad idea with great execution, and i'll start a good idea with 'meh' execution. you will lose badly.

love your blog billy

 

[GIlman]

I would agree that ideas matter tremendously. this discussion reminds me of the first video in the series how to start a startup. you can find it on you tube and it is excellent.

To paraphrase what he says. Great Ideas become Great Products become Great Companies.

Skip to about 15:15

This lecture series was put on by the people from Y combinator. so they know a few thing about startups.

 

[eliquid]

Without dragging the thread out again, it has been 2 years now.

I think overall there was one main point that was missed in my post, the fact I did write that you need both.

Also, you gotta play to your strengths.

I'm not here to offend anybody. So anyone that reads the next couple lines needs to remember that.

However, we are all different people. We have different strengths and you have to play to those strengths.

Are you not a day dreamer? Do you have a hard time being creative? Maybe you just aren't good at coming up with good ideas?

If so, maybe you reach success executing better and agree to that point of view. You take a bad idea and execute on it, fail.. take another and fail, take another and fail, and at some point you have executed enough to know what not to do and turn those bad ideas into a good one that when you execute on it, it works.

Some people just can not come up with a great idea. Sure, THEY think its a great idea, but out in the real world it's just not. That's ok if you struggle or can't develop a great idea. Just like discipline and willpower, you have to mentally "workout" and develop the mental muscle for what is a great idea.

You aren't just gifted willpower, discipline, and other mental gifts. You have to practice and develop yourself over time for it. Why wouldn't the same be true for creativity and ideas?

Now the flip side...

Are you more of big thinker than a doer? Do you come up with ideas easily ( good or bad ), do you analyse and research the idea and improve it in your head over and over again? Do you put all the pieces in your head from A to Z easily like Nikola Tesla? Would you rather dream it up, perfect it, but have someone else ( potentially ) complete it? Then the "idea" will probably get you further than executing on something because that's not your strength.

Even without that above thought flow, I still say that the idea ( 2 years later ) is above execution for the simple reason I could sell an idea or patent it. Even without that, your "idea" has to be good enough to execute on. Nobody wants to buy a poor "idea" no matter how you have executed on it. At some point you execute your bad idea into a good idea ( if you are not an idea person ) so the idea is what eventually gets you successful.

Why?

Because you could execute on poor ideas your whole life. No one is going to buy it. You keep executing and executing and executing. You never develop something good or great. But my great idea I never fully execute on? I at least have a shot of executing 5% and having my lawyer patent it and then hire a salesman to pitch the idea to companies to purchase. You just don't get that the other way around.

There is some truth though ( which I mentioned 2 years ago ) that a good ideas needs some execution. However, the execution can be outsourced which takes it off my plate and why I can put more into "ideas".

In the end, it shouldn't be "idea vs execution". Both are needed.

In my view, I spend more time in the "idea" ( the 95% ) than the "execution" ( the 5%) phase. Because I spend more time on the idea, it IS more important to me.

Look at McDonalds. Who executes at most of the stores? Teenagers and lower level. You think they execute well? No. But the idea was to create a process/system that ANYONE can follow and is repeatable so that execution is at the bare min.

Look at the assembly line. The idea was to make tasks smaller and focused among many people in a repeatable and predictable way. The execution each person does on the line is, well, very minimal and small and without much thought.

In both of the 2 above examples, almost ANYONE can come in and execute for McDonalds or Ford. The execution they do doesn't have to be good. Why? Because the great idea solved not having to have good execution.

I've done pretty well in my life following this same method.

Other people have done well focusing more on what they want to call "execution".

But then again, you have to consider what I wrote above too about YOUR strengths. Where are your strengths? Follow that.

Mine is with crafting great ideas.

.

 

[eliquid]

No one is all seeing and all knowing. This is impossible. I would have precisely 0 businesses right now if I stuck to the original plan every time.

Care to guess what brought me to those realizations? Execution.

I am part of 5 businesses that are the product of executing on good ideas that developed into better ideas.

No one said anything about all seeing and all knowing. I also never said you had to stick to any original plans you made. Those are not anything I have said.

If you have experience in your space, you know what value the market wants. If you don't there are ways of finding out.

In the end, you said you were part of 5 business that had a good idea. Lets see you run that with a poor idea and how you would end up.

No matter how many times you execute and pivot, you have to have that good idea before the magic happens. Executing on poor ideas that never turn good ( or great ) ends you up on broke street.

In the end, you gotta have the good idea.

In the end, no one has showed me in this thread ungodly execution on a poor idea that has made them successful. Those that have tried, end up back at their poor idea turned into a good one though.

However, everything everyone has tried to point out has been execution on a good or great idea and then success came.

What's the difference in the 2 examples above? The idea.

It's not hard to spot folks.

If you want to execute on poor ideas, thinking that WILL GET YOU to a good or great idea, or just success while sticking to the poor idea.. be my guest. But this sounds a lot like just working in a cubicle under an employer the rest of my life.

I don't have 15+ years to waste pivoting on bad ideas hoping they turn good/great. You can't tell me that execution on a poor idea will END YOU UP at a good idea. There is no forecast for it.

In the end, execution HAS TO HAVE a good or great idea behind it to be successful. Every example in this thread has pointed to it. I haven't seen one post someone has made where execution + poor execution = success. Advantage seems to be with the idea.

The great idea at a min can have very little execution behind it ( as in patents or licensing ). Or it can have outsourced execution ( as I mentioned before in taking it off my plate ). In this way also, the great idea has an advantage.

When the idea is good, it doesn't need a lot of work to get it off the ground. A poor idea takes forever to get off the ground and even more time to get "good".

This is why I firmly put ideas above execution.





.

 

[Dave510]

This may be the absolute most naive thing I've ever read of this forum...

So, you believe that had you had the IDEA for a better search algorithm (specifically page rank), you would have turned that idea into a billion-dollar company like Google?

You would have been able to convince Tom Perkins to give you $25M?

You could have convinced Eric Schmidt to join the company as CEO (in retrospect, he was key to growth and was a competetive advantage over other search companies)?

You would have figured out how to monetize search results better than the competition? Note that Google didn't pioneer keyword advertising...they stole it from goto.com/Overture and did it better

You would have figured out how design innovative low-cost server farms that the competition couldn't build and that you wouldn't have been able to scale without?

You would have figured out how to design a distributed, redundant and cost-effective edge network to reduce latency, which made your user experience better than your competition and allowed you to go International?

You would have figured out that a minimalist UI would would exponentially increase page views and become a de facto standard for search pages?

You would have conceived of "I'm feeling lucky?" which drove popularity of the site in the first few years?

You would have been forward thinking enough to acquire Keyhole, Doubleclick, Grand Central and Motorola Mobility, which ultimately led to Google Earth, the best ad network on the web, Google Voice and Android?

I could go on for days with all the smart moves (I.e, execution) that Google made that had absolutely nothing to do with Page Rank. It's the tens of thousands of other decisions they've made over the years that turned That one research project in grad school into a $300B company -- where search results contribute a very small percentage of direct revenue?

You think YOU could have done that had you had the single idea for Page Rank?

I think some of the disagreement stems from not clearly defining idea and execution. Execution involves a lot of problem solving, and problem solving generally involves the use of some kind of idea. For example, most of those Google execution can be reframed as an "idea", e.g. The "idea" of "I'm feeling lucky?", or the "idea" of minimalist UI and etc. The difference is that these "ideas" are combined with action to serve a bigger idea (the company's mission or goal).

For some, the idea is just the goal or purpose of the company, for other people it's that plus hundreds and thousands of small "ideas" and creative thinking that builds up the company.

Ultimately though, you can be successful either way: thinking up amazing big ideas and executing decently (having mediocre small ideas when solving the smaller problems), or taking a decent idea/preexisting idea and execution amazingly (thinking up new and efficient ways to better serve the big idea).

 

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[jon.a]

A long time ago I was part of a fleet evaluation team for Naval Aviation.
We tested the operational squadrons for readiness.

Some were exceptional
Some average.
Some sucked.

Why?

They all had the same tools.

It was the people. Leadership. Execution.

 

[samuraijack]

I remember someone here once said "Do you want to be right? Or do you want to be rich?"

 

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[jcvlds]

Shit. Thank God this thread got bumped. Such a good read and mental stimulation. I will add my 2 cents around this debate and would like to invite @JScott and @eliquid to re-visit this topic, about 2 years later, to hear how their view on this has changed (or not).

Here's why separating 'idea' from 'execution' and saying one is more important than the other or relating to them in terms of a % is a terrible way to think about a business.

For any business to get started and have a good profitability it needs to have an offering within a market that has a certain (or collection of) demand, and it needs to be able to capture a piece of the market at a cost that leaves room (margins) for profit. The question for many new entrants becomes, 1) Where do I go?/ Who do I serve?/ What do I offer.. and 2) How do I compete/win?

These 2 questions, Where do I play, and How do I win, become the basis for your business strategy. The decisions you make for these two questions will drive EVERYTHING else that you do in your business. All decisions and actions within your functions/depts/business areas (so many terms used but referring to the same thing; i.e. Sales & Marketing, Supply Chain, Customer Service, HR, etc) should be supporting the two answers you made to the two strategy questions.

I believe this is the underlying component to what people often refer to as an 'idea'.
The [business] 'idea' is really a plan for competing in the market that consists of many sub-ideas (functional strategies and decisions). eLiquid talks about having a UVP and a unique differentiator to separate yourself from the competition. This lies within the answer and decision you make to strategy question #2 (How do I win?).

When you decide on which market to compete in, you really only have a few choices with how to compete... you can try to become a price leader (selling the cheapest) but it is not just as easy as saying 'I will price my product cheaper than everybody'. Okay.. what will that do? You might be selling at a loss because the margins are already razor-thin. You might be cutting industry margins from low to even lower and F*cking the market up for all the players. The only way I see you being able to pull this off is by having special access to raw materials/goods that lets you have it cheaper than everybody else out there, but this is is really really hard to do. I would never want to play in this game. The other way on how to compete can be to take a differentiated approach by niching down within the market and positioning yourself as unique relative to customers who value that positioning and are willing to pay a bit more for than the generic/more mainstream market.

That was long.. sorry. But the concept to be extracted is that the 'idea' that people often talk about is really referring to a business strategy. Within your overall business strategy and individual functional strategies lies other questions and decisions that you will have to make that is aligned with and supports the overall strategy. What does this mean? Well, an example can be the things JScott mentioned around all the 'ideas' that Google had and acted on. All the things Google did supported their overall business strategy. These ideas were part of the functional strategies.

Let me see if I can try to think of a more simpler and local example. Let's say you want to open an online shop in the kitchenware category. You've answered your 'Where will I play/compete' question. Now How will you win? There are so many kitchenware stores and brands. You could aim to become the cheapest price and so you will capture so much market share that the volume will let you beat everybody and rake huge profits. If you find a way, awesome, but I personally think this is super duper hard. Only thing you will cause is a price war and the industry margins will collapse, or your more established competitors will play the price war game with you even lower, crushing you, and then once you exit they can raise their prices back to normal.

Another route could be if you found a niche that really value a specific type of appliance or extra features, or variety, or you name it. The thing is, you find that there is demand/need for something that current competitors are not addressing [well enough]. The overall market here is smaller, obviously, than the more broad kitchenware market but you find that there is very little competition, and you are confident you can compete and hopefully beat them. You decide you want to play in the smaller market where you can win. Great, you've answered the strategy question #2.

The next part: EXECUTION

Up to this point, all you have is an 'idea'. You have a (hopefully) well-thought out 'idea' or business strategy along with functional strategies and decisions that will support your overall strategy. What's left is the Execution part.

To me, Execution means nothing more than literally ACTING/PERFORMING the decisions you make. It's the daily actions that need to be occurring in order to realize the business strategy and goals. In your strategy and planning, you have to obviously create a bridge between your idea and how it will manifest itself. These are tangible actions and measurable activities that will need to occur in order to fulfill and execute the plan. Execution is THE ONLY WAY that your idea becomes a reality and exists physically in our world. Without execution, it will always remain in your mind (and minds of others), but never in the real world.

What makes an 'idea' a success?
I really like the point eLiquid makes here about how to measure the success of an idea or a business. Clearly, one's measure of success can vary greatly to another's. I agree with his point that a $100K business could be deemed as successful as a $1M, $10M, $100M business. The criteria lies in the context. Let's compare our example online kitchenware shop to an international brand in the likes of Kitchenaid. Well, if our shop starts out as a $100K business, if we compare it by revenues, some would say ours is a failure compared to Kitchenaid. But what if our example entrepreneur is profiting $40K because his niche profit margin is really good and he is able to cover his personal living expenses? And what if that entrepreneur completely dominated his niche next year and grew to $500K, then $1M the next year, and $5M the next? The choice is up to him if he wants to grow. Likewise, if he wants to grow he will only do so in a few ways... the niche market grows organically and because he is a leader in the space he rides the wave and captures more market share; another way is to use his niche dominance to move into an adjacent-niche, and then another, and eventually being big enough to compete in an overall broad market if he wants to. In each decision to grow, he will need to have another 'idea', or another business strategy in how he will win in the new space. And then he will have to execute.


I know that was very long and perhaps some parts were unnecessary. But I had fun writing about this and hopefully get some feedback or valid criticism to my thinking from eLiquid and JScott

Overall, I think separating 'idea' from 'execution' and saying one is more important than the other or relating to them in terms of a % is a bad way to think about a business. I believe Idea = 100% and Execution = 100%. They are two sides of the same coin that work together to make the business actually exist.

 

[GPM]

I firmly believe that on average a person only rises as far as they can lead. Leadership is, in my experience, the most important part of business.

This is Gold. Ever heard of a little fella' named Andrew Carnegie? He was a leader, who got the best in the world to work for him, and love working for him, all because he was a great leader.

In today's dollars he would be worth a little over $370 BILLION.

Anyone can be good at what they do, or know more information that someone else about a given topic, all that takes is research. Being able to harness those people and bring their skills towards a common goal - those are the people who shake the planet and change the course of humanity.

 

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