After taking up Entrepreneurial path, I have come across many interesting experiences on a daily basis. Every day is filled with unknown or unclear activities with more effort is put to make it more and more clear. In due course of time I also got an opportunity to meet a bunch of entrepreneurs, consultants, mentors and ecosystems partners in Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem. Also, I also got opportunity to work more closely with a smaller entrepreneurial teams and execute things at ‘ground zero’.
It is a very popular (or hyped) belief that everything starts with Idea. If an individual has a breathtaking idea he can make it happen. Thanks to some recent bigger acquisitions, millions and billions are looking smaller and smaller. However, when I work more closely with my organizations or meet people who are ‘really’ successful entrepreneurs it gives me totally a contrarian perspective. No matter how good an idea an individual or a team has, it’s all about execution.
The reason is very simple. Strong execution is what helps organization create customer value and business results. Let me take an example of our education segment itself. It is very easy for anybody with decent technical knowledge to come up with a training program in a relatively niche area like Linux. Thanks to lower entry barrier it is easy for an individual to come up with learning materials, doing market research and coming up with value proposition of a particular training program. However, following are the key questions are not hyped enough but very critical when it comes to business.
- How quickly can I find a paying customer, who is in real need of my service?
- How can I ensure that the customer signs a cheque?
- How do I gauge current skill level of target audience and figure out what exactly they expect?
- In case I already know I can’t exceed their expectations in the training program how do I manage it at least by meeting their expectations?
- How do I tune my way of delivery, so that audience has maximum take away?
- How to I collect feedback from them, in case of negative feedback how can I address them?
- In case of getting positive feedback how can I convert into a repeatable business?
The whole crux of all above-mentioned questions directly relates with the way of a particular training program is executed. Apart from above-mentioned questions there might be another bunch of questions, issues, challenges we face every day at ground zero level when we actually deliver something to our customers. When we go through this grind every day it has become quite obvious that execution is super important than idea. With technology advancements, mentor ecosystem and internet it is very easy for anybody to come up with a relatively new idea. However, ensuring that a particular product or service is really accepted from the customer end and generates value requires a strong execution backed up by the idea. I am not underestimating or downplaying the importance of having an important idea, building a strategy or having marketing/GTM activity, eventually execution is what makes all the difference.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
