Elements of High Performance Business Initiatives

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.