Episode 13 – Ideas vs Execution

Hey, everyone.

So, today we’re going to talk around ideas versus execution. “An idea without a plan is just a wish” – this is something that we always look at as a great quote that we use for all the start-up ideas we get at WeAgile. Now, we’re really fortunate that we get to get exposed to lots of great ideas, game-changing ideas and potentially world-changing ideas if they are delivered correctly and they are successful and mostly if they’re executed properly. So, what I’m going to run through very quickly is just the process in which we look at these ideas and hopefully, it gives you guys, who are listening to this – with ideas and startups that want to launch these things some kind of framework, or some kind of guidance to what is expected to make these ideas successful, because ideas are cheap, so to speak, until they are delivered and our job is to make sure these ideas get wrapped around with a sense of purpose, a super-team to execute and a process that is very quick, lean and agile. And it’s been tried and tested over and over again and we use this process countless times with every shape and size of business and even if it’s not a start-up, and it’s just to solve a big problem and make decisions in larger companies that are sometimes quite slow.

So the method that I’m going to suggest at the minute is very much something we’ve utilised over and over again. I highly recommend anyone with an idea at least check some of these points to see if they are making sure they have addressed each of them.

So number one – Founder Compatibility. Have you considered the compatibility of you and your founders? Have you checked that in the past? Because without that, that is obviously going to be a big problem, a huge problem actually when you get further into this venture. So that is a primary, primary thing, which I know sounds obvious, but it’s rarely checked because everyone is blinded by the idea and blinded by the glory of what it could be, and the wealth that comes from it, I suppose as well. So that’s quite a big one.

Number two – Founder Foresight. Have you even looked at the marketplace in detail that you’re going into? Have you looked at the competition? Have you looked at the landscape, the geographical audience and where they live and where they are going to be coming to you at?

And number three is – The Roadmap. And I spoke about this in the past, but do you have a plan? Do you have like a broken-down step-by-step plan that you can measure success along the way and you can take that all the way through to the end result?

Brand Communication Strategy is number four. And if you don’t have one, number four – Brand Communication Strategy. So who you’re talking to? What does your brand represent? What is the thought leadership message you want to convey to the world? And what’re the benefits of your brand, your product to the world Because if you don’t have that articulated, unfortunately, you have the best product in the world, but it’s just white noise because no one’s actually paying attention to you.

Number five – Product Strategy. Is there one? Because with a product strategy that is all about making it as human-centred as possible. So human beings understand how to use it, how to navigate through it, what it is and it’s actually useful for them in their everyday lives.

Number six is what we call – Agile Execution. Do you have a team that can deliver across all these different disciplines to a high-quality? To bring together things like design, engineering, marketing, strategy, launch, all those things that are really important for a business, especially, digital product. Do you have access to those?

And number seven is the one that I always find most founders are the least prepared in which is – The Venture Preparation. You know, do you have your investment deck ready? Do you have investment contacts? Do you have a breakdown of how you’d spend your investment? Do you have commercial models?The list can go on and it’s also a big, big problem where if you’re looking to raise money eventually and you don’t prepare for this it can be a significant hurdle to cross. The worst mistake you can make is when you take someone into the Dragons Den for the investors, and the numbers are basically completely off the point. They are based in ‘fantasy lands’ and the investor will see that immediately and turn it down immediately. So our challenge always with the venture part of this service that we offer is to make sure that we can deploy the founder in the maximum confidence, so when the investors talk to them, they’ve got all the answers they need, it all makes sense, all tallies up, and this is like a really big, big part of what we offer once we’ve got through all the one to six points I’ve just mentioned.

So those are seven things that are just literally top of my head. There’s so many more that I could on about but the point is – if you’re going forward to start a new business and new idea, start a new product, start a new idea inside a business – I’d highly recommend making sure that you go through those seven points and just look at them and understand if you’ve actually addressed any of those or all of those and if you haven’t – give us a shout! We can obviously give you some impartial advice and then obviously, we have a full team of people that can help fill the gaps and make it happen.

But again, for me, ideas are great. However, they’re cheap. Execution is where the key component comes into making great products and great brands in the world.