Which is more valuable — the idea or the execution?

This question, posted recently to a popular LinkedIn group, sparked more comments than any other thread posted to the group to date. As I ponder my own answer, I’d have to go with the execution. The main reason I land on that side of the debate is that ideas are easy, abundant and on everyone’s mind; only rare individuals or teams can successfully carry out the painstaking work of bringing those ideas first to life and then to fruition.

We’ve all had the experience of hatching what we believe is a million-dollar idea, only to see someone else has put it into action, thereby “stealing” the fame and fortune we felt we were due. “Hey, that was my idea,” we say, but really was it yours if it didn’t get legs and move? Execution is where the rubber meets the road.

So what’s the invisible line that divides success from failure? Execution. This is more a fact than simply general pessimism. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, “Seven out of 10 new employer firms last at least two years, and about half survive five years.” Now, while that statistic might be surprisingly positive to most, some will immediately
consider all the failures. And within those failures lie countless ideas that went down with the ship, or poorly executed ones that, had they been executed better, might have helped the business survive and flourish.

Execution is hard

No one likes hard. In fact, our very beings are programmed to seek out the easiest path to our survival. Execution requires hard work, investment of time, money, and energy, with gratification either delayed or uncertain. Indeed, from the original idea that birthed a project, a product, a movement, etc., the execution of it can be best understood as a process incorporating a million smaller ideas that must all be good, and all support the bigger idea.

Everyone loves to thumb through the latest magazine or catalog of his or her favorite hobby and imagine having the latest doodad. It gives us a pleasant feeling inside, makes us feel like we almost have it in hand … then we back up and look at the work required to obtain the high-priced obsession, and we close the magazine or catalog and look for
something else to do. Ideas are the dream, the possibility and the potential. We all like ideas. They’re easy.

Many start-ups invest every ounce of their time, capital, and resources on perfecting the item or idea to sell, leaving very little available for marketing, advertising, PR, or hiring top talent to work the idea. I see this more often than I care to admit — idea rich, cash poor, it is one of the biggest traps in the initial start-up phase. At the risk of sounding existential, if an idea is truly great but you have no resources to announce it, what is it worth to your business?

Execution is elusive

How many times have you been making good, steady progress toward bringing an idea to life only to experience a sudden impediment or lose a bit of momentum? The old ways of working no longer work, and energy is required to create a new way of working or a reinvention or some aspect of the process. Each aspect of growth requires leaders and teammates alike to grow professionally and personally to meet the challenges of success. An old mentor once told me, “Success will be more difficult than starting up.” At the time I thought the old man crazy…but there is truth there.

There is no doubt that execution without a grand idea will get us nowhere. It was Edison who moved us from candle to light bulb, and Ford from horse to car, and Jobs from CD to iPod. They all had grand ideas, but were perhaps more gifted in the execution department that brought these changes to our lives in a big way. I will grant that execution without the idea is futile, so they definitely go together, but I would place my bets first on the jockey leading the charge, then on the team and plan for executing the idea, and finally the idea.

Have an idea — then get ready to work it, really work it!

John Miles is Chief of What’s Next at Integritive, an Asheville firm. For more: www.integritive.comon twitter www.twitter.com/integritiveJM

Article originally published in the Asheville Citizen-Times, August 8, 2010: http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010308080019