Strategy.manage.ent

Poorly grounded, ill-conceived, unlikely, improbable ideas may well be easy to spew. But executing such ideas, no matter how well done, isn't going to lead anywhere. So yes, Krzysztof, ideas do matter. And the idea that Microsoft grew to be one of the world's most significant companies without innovation is untenable.

Great business without innovation. You don't need an ounce of innovation in order to have a very successful business. At least according to David Wheeler. I guess David's intention was just to show Microsoft in bad light but if you put 2 and 2 together, the inevitable conclusion is that you don't need any innovative ideas in order to have good business, sometimes even extremely good business. I guess many people (those hung up on "innovation") don't get, but it's just one of many examples that "innovation" per se is not equal to "good" or "profitable". Ideas are worthless, execution is what matters. [ Source: Krzysztof Kowalczyk's Weblog]

Wheeler's point -- that Microsoft products are not innovative -- may or may not be accurate, but it is irrelevant. Gates is one of the most innovative businessmen since Rockefeller. He has steam rolled his competition. He has refined the concept of "good enough" to an art form. He has built a virtual religion on the Redmond campus with tens of thousands of converts. He has arguably created more millionaires than anyone in history. These are not the accomplishments of some mindless troglodyte executing flawlessly on the concept of ditch digging.

Frederick Taylor literally remade the industrial revolution because of his ideas about the nature of execution. Henry Ford remade the auto industry because of his ideas about the nature of manufacturing. Ideas matter. But good ones require development -- deeper thought, better questioning, perhaps even collaboration. Only then does execution matter.

John Nordstrom is credited with uttering the phrase, "Execute, don't innovate." But at the heart of Nordstrom's success is the idea that customer service matters, and Nordstrom's innovation was to find new ways of serving his customers.

Ideas are talent, execution is practice. In professional sports I'll place my money on the team with more talent over the team with more practice any day. Business is no different. All else being equal, execution is the determining factor. But if you're executing flawlessly on the wrong idea, you're doomed.