Elements of High Performance Business Initiatives

Idea is like a seed. Execution is like sowing & farming. And the reality around is like
the terrain on which the seed is sown. ... Though the seed may look small compared
to the surroundings, it's not worthless! Keep dreaming & executing to succeed!

The search for formula for successful business is an ongoing quest. The
management literature is full of 'what to dos' and 'how to dos'. Some of them have
focused the ideas or strategies behind the success. Earlier, the thrust of
management books was more on getting the right strategy to be successful. Most of
the management literature in nineties focused on ideas and strategies. Execution of
ideas was the subtext.

Recently, the thrust has shifted to execution, ie. 'How to dos’. In the early part of
the decade, the focus shifted to execution. Such literature was driven by
management gurus like Ram Charan, Noel M Tichy. amongst others. The strategy
was the starting point implicitly in such literature.

The CEOs who rode the success waves emphasized on how they moved from almost
a disastrous zone to the land of opportunity. They identified the waves they rode
on. Andy Grove, in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, gave the concept of
Strategic Inflection Point (SIP), the point at which the industry experiences dramatic
change. Jack Welch talked about how he grew GE; while narrating his growth in GE
in Straight from the Guts. Strategy and execution were always given due
importance in these books.
Recently Prof. Vijay Govindraj of Tuck Business School in his recent book, co-
authored along with Christopher Trimble, ‘Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From
Idea to Execution’, provides formula for success of business initiatives in corporate
sector. The success of such initiative is the function of product of strategy and
execution.

From the above, we can arrive to the conclusion that, the success of any business
initiative is function of ideas, execution and the 'ground realities' around us. It can
be simply put as Success = function of (Ideas*Execution*Reality).

Let us explore different aspects of this formula. Though the formula is presented in
'cold mathematical' fashion; the formula does not tell the whole story. The function
is based on how tightly these factors are aligned with each other. By an astute
business leader, the ingredients of success formula can be orchestrated in such a
way that a virtuous cycle may be created. Such a virtuous cycle can yield great
results for the organization not just in the long term but also on short term basis
too. On another extreme, if the same aspect is handled by a novice may create a
vicious cycle to wipe all the earnings. Generally speaking, the ideas, execution and
reality assessment need to be strongly coupled and then they should feed each
other strongly to reinforce each other to create resonance in every cycle, thus
enhancing the power by multiples in each iteration. Thus, every iteration adds value
dramatically.

Here, an attempt is made to answer the six basic questions of business success.
'What' of the success is addressed by ideas part of the formula. 'How' and 'who' are
addressed by 'execution' part. 'When' and 'where' are addressed by 'realities'. Rest
of the text tries to address 'whys'.

Ideas:

As quoted by Victor Hugo, An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea
whose time has come. But the beneficiary of such an idea being victorious goes to
the smart and wise guys who hold the opportunity by its horns and ride the wave of
the opportunity.

'Ideas', as a general term, constitutes innovations, strategy derived by assessing

various parameters affecting the business largely based on the reality, the past,
present and future. Generation of ideas can be done through various methods like
brainstorming, structured meetings, reviews, Kai zen,... ...
The ideas are beginning of the journey. The ideas are more like seed or embryo.
The DNA determines the shape of larger things to come if nurtured well with the
favorable 'ground' realities. The ideas need to be executed well. The guideline for
execution of ideas is ‘1% inspiration; 99% perspiration’, where ideas are inspiration,
the execution is perspiration. The execution part is represented by 99 times, here
but it may go up easily beyond 1,000s of times too.

Where as ideas define the shape of things to come. Like seeds, ideas are small part
of the whole story. The analogy of seeds/embryo stops here. Unlike the seeds which
lead to specific plant, the ideas can grow into any other related business too. The
ideas in business can be compared more to 'amoeba'. The shape of idea may keep
on changing. The replication and multiplication is unlimited. In a way, we are at the
beginning of 'Business evolution'. Hence, ideas generated today, can evolve from
'protozoa, ie. amoebic shape till the emergence of human beings in evolution terms.

In a nutshell, there is a huge opportunity awaiting us in the long term. The

evolution here can be advanced by executing the ideas. Test the ideas against the
realities around us. Refine, execute, further refine. Execute the ideas in a new
reality or new business altogether. Get new insights. Apply those insights
elsewhere. Keep the evolution at full throttle to generate greater business at every
iteration. Thus, the success breeds success to deliver greater results. In such an
environment, the top management keeps on providing relentless 'learn_apply_re-
learn_re-apply' cycles for the team. In this process, the team and the organization
reap huge returns both financially and in learning opportunities.

Once such ideas are generated, they need to be thought through till the execution
against the backdrop of the ground realities around us. As an end result of such a
session, the team should be able to come out with clear cut execution plan. The
team moves into execution aspect of the journey.

Execution:

As noted by Theodore Levitt, 'Ideas are useless unless used'. Execution is the action
part of the formula. The managers & leaders have the control over execution. Such
an execution, when done well leveraging ideas and responding to the ever-changing
realities around us, results in business success. Every such successful execution
feeds the team back with newer learning to be more successful in the next iteration.
 The business reality around us can be likened to 'tsunami hit' sea surrounding a
ship. The management is at the helm of such a ship. We can draw an analogy of
'tornado hit' flight, and the management is in the cockpit. Whereas, such analogies
may deter the faint hearted, the great business leaders thrive on such challenges.
Because they intuitively know that, the ferocity of such challenges is devastating;
but the results of riding such opportunities yield dramatic growth prospects.

Whereas strategically, ideas determine broader direction for execution; Reality

feeds back while executing the strategy on real time basis. The street-smart ideas
generated at the time of facing the realities form the basis of tactics.

Strategy can be illustrated, in military context (where it was derived from) as the
Plan of Action (PoA) to win the war based on the inputs accumulated over long term
regarding the enemy and the realities. The action plan is set in future, at least a few
months, weeks or days ahead. The war is going to be fought away in harsh battle
grounds. The strategic planners have the luxury of time, data collection, processing
and trials errors.

The execution differs from strategy in as many ways. Execution is on real time, on
the harsh battle grounds and while facing the enemy in his face; while the bayonet
is about to pierce through. For bold execution, continuous rigorous practicing is
required. The leadership needs to coach the team members (covering the whole
hierarchy) in such a way that the reality seems like cakewalk. The more rigorous
and real life like the coaching and practice, the execution will be completed more
like a master stroke. Once, the art of execution is mastered in the known territory.
The leadership needs to develop the processes and systems based on the learning
and implement. After refining further the processes and systems, the ruling of the
turf can be assigned on autopilot. The leadership needs to look forward to new
unknown territories with larger opportunities disguised as challenges. Thus, the
leadership keeps on broadening its business territory.

Realities:

Opportunities multiply, as they are seized, thus said Sun Tzu thousands of years
ago.

Ground realities are shaped due to various factors beyond any individual entity's
control. Here, ‘entity’ refers to any person, organization or even nation. These
entities definitely contribute to the shape of ground realities. There is always an
effort to control by all the entities; whether consciously or unconsciously. At the
same time ground realities have the power to affect the destiny of all the entities.
Such power may affect the entities suddenly or over a period of time.

As different entities have very limited possibility of shaping the ground realities;
And at the same time Ground Realities have immense power to affect the entities. It
is far easier for business leader to sense and feel the realities as they are being
shaped. An astute business leader will look at the indications of imminent 'tipping
point' (as explained by Malcolm Gladwell in his eponymous book); and prepare his
organization to leverage the 'tipping point' to leverage to advantage.

A friend of mine who has been running small but sustained business with healthy
growth quipped to me that to run a business you don't need great intelligence. This
is very true, if you are lucky enough to be part of steady business. Here we are
referring to ‘steady growth’. Additionally, naturally you may be talented to read the
signs of reality and astute enough to ride the wave. In my view, the person was
lucky enough to have enough resources and the right combination of supporting
team to succeed.

This is completely different for high performance growth oriented strategies and
execution. So for most of us, even though we may not be lucky enough, the
knowledge of the elements of high performance business initiatives will help to
focus on the things which matter in this context.

In the above formula the impact of ideas is largely directed towards zeroing in on
the opportunity. The quantitative impact of ideas is the least compared to execution
and realities. To give an example, the ideas quantitative impact is limited to the
range of 0 to 100; whereas the impact of execution goes to the order of million; and
the impact of reality goes to the order of billion, trillion or even infinity.

It is necessary to mention a few words on alignment and tight coupling here. The
ideas, execution and realities have to be well aligned. The effect keeps on feeding
back positively in every cycle. Thus it leads to dramatic success. Conversely, if all
these elements are not in sync, then one may end up in disastrous consequences.
These are extreme cases. The truth for most of the organizations lies between these
extremes on a bell curve. The wise and shrewd business leaders, who have
benefited from dramatic successes in earlier wins, steer their enterprises to
success. Such leaders are at the helms of such affairs. And intuitively, they
understand the dynamics to steer their ship/flight in such a way that they get the
most out of the opportunity: which had become a formidable challenge.
 To summarize, the elements of high performance in business can be leveraged fully
if ideas, execution realities are tightly coupled and well aligned. These elements
feed back each other in every iteration in multiplying manner to generate
dramatically great results. This can be represented by the diagram above.

Girish B Hukkeri

PGDGM (XLRI Jamshedpur)

Founder & CEO

embryoFund

The Enabling Ecosystem for Early-stage Entrepreneurs

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