One of the many myths surrounding innovation is thinking that we need extraordinary capabilities. And also a disruptive mind to generate brilliant ideas. But not only that, also that ideas are the only factors to become successful.
One of the lessons I’ve had running innovation projects has been to understand that: a weak but well-executed idea makes millions of dollars. And that a brilliant idea with a weak execution goes nowhere. I even made this post so that you can size a little better what I mean in economic terms:
Let’s go with examples:
There are exceptional companies like Netflix that have a brilliant idea and execution, managing to multiply their revenues exponentially: $ 25,000 million in 2020. Others like Apple who, except for their first iPhone (don’t hate me Apple fans), have a regular idea, but brilliant execution in every interaction of their models.
Otherwise it happens to Samsung. With their Z flip / fold models they are a great idea but their execution is not what you would expect. Not only in economic terms but because of the feedback provided by early consumers or early adopters.
For its part, Google Glasses are a brilliant idea for me. Having a mini projector in the lenses seems epic to me. But its execution has been between good and regular but at the level of use it is lousy. The justification that “it is a prototype” no longer fits. If since 2013 they have been improving it and seeing how they turn it around but without much progress.
And in our personal life
But let’s see let’s not go too far: take a scan of your personal and professional life and remember when: you felt blocked because you did not know how to solve a problem and what came to you did not convince enough.
You stopped taking action on an idea hoping that the “stars would align” and said that it was the idea that was going to change your life. You didn’t need to make radical changes or have crazy ideas to get results as you decided to optimize and clean up the way you were doing it.
You saw a colleague do the same as you but with different results. What I know about this is that neither extreme is positive. The title of the article was just to get their attention.
Businesses and people with extraordinary results have brilliant ideas and executions.
