Which is more important: ideas or execution?

From the Innovation Weblog - Which is more important: ideas or execution? - May, 2006

"The image of the creative, inspired entrepreneur who sees the future in a different way and develops a breakthrough idea is deeply embedded in business culture. But coming up with the killer idea is only one small part of the battle, according to Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, authors of the new book, 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators. Where most companies fail at innovation, they contend, is in the area of execution, not idea generation.

Survey after survey shows that most company executives believe they are far better at generating ideas than executing them. Despite the fact that the real leverages in the backend of innovation - in execution - most managers of obsess over the front end of the innovation process, on generating ideas. Once a high potential idea has been identified, a business plan has been written and refined, and a passionate leader has been assigned to run it, everyone assumes that the rest will be easy.

The error is in assuming that the company has already hurdled the most difficult barriers to innovation: finding a great idea and a great leader. In fact, the biggest challenges are still to come. Our research has shown that strategic experiments face their stiffest resistance once they are showing signs of success, consuming more resources, and clashing with (the parent company) at multiple levels."

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