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Execution

The Big Idea

You’ve got the bright ideas and the smart people, and the market is just ready for you. But why hasn’t your business taken off as you predicted? Maybe the problem is in your execution. What does it really take to get a business going? You need the right people combined with realistic strategies to create effective operating procedures. Let Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan tell you how.

A business leader’s most important job is the execution of plans, the “detail work,” making sure that the staff is getting results. This is the sort of responsibility that cannot be delegated. It is the leader’s primary duty to see that every member of the team is carrying out his part of the big plan to ensure the whole company’s success. There are no excuses for failure: the market will always be tough. What spells the difference between successes and failures is the ability to execute plans.

Too often, too much intellectualizing and philosophy occurs at the planning level. The leaders are busy with their dreams and plans for success but there is little focus on implementation, thus the promised result is not delivered. The emphasis on execution as an integral part of the business process has not received enough attention in terms of accumulated knowledge and literature.

Part One: Why Execution is Needed

The Gap Nobody Knows

Sometimes even good companies fail with catastrophic results, despite stellar qualities. The problem is usually not the strategy or the person in charge; it is the gap between strategy and execution.

1. Execution is a discipline: Execution is fundamental to strategy and must shape it. It is the process of taking into account all factors that can affect your end result. Too often plans are static, made by rote and taken for granted. Plans and processes need to be carefully thought out and performed given current and possible future realities.
2. Execution is the Job of the Business Leader: Execution requires a comprehensive understanding of a business, its people and its environment. Leaders should be intimately and intensely involved with their people and operations; in other words, active involvement is the key here. Dialogue must be at the core: be candid and reality-based, ask questions and find realistic solutions.
3. Execution Has to Be in the Culture: Execution has to be embedded in the rewards system and in the norms of behavior. Look for deviations from desired managerial tolerances. Execution only works as a widespread collective effort, not on an individual basis.

Why People Don’t Get It

People assume that the statement of an idea instantly produces results. Or they announce the idea and expect other people to spell it out and do what needs to be done. Results can only be obtained when you specify in detail how to arrive at desired outcomes through persistent probing in the right direction. We are geared to think that leaders are supposed to find new ways of thinking, new strategies, new ideas. But the work of bringing these abstract thoughts to fruition is usually delegated to someone else. . . . . .