Business Execution – What You Should Know

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” – William A. Foster

Effective execution is key and vital to any successful business.

In his book The Breakthough Company, Keith McFarland found that all breakthrough companies he studied in his research were masters at execution. He went on to say that the best laid plans and strategies are completely worthless unless they are executed upon. It goes back to the old saying - Actions speak louder than words.

When it comes to running a business, this is something that I regularly remind myself. I find that I (as well as members of my team) am continuously coming up with new and great ideas that we want to pursue. However there is risk in trying to pursue too much. I have always found that if we try and pursue too much, then nothing gets done. That is the reason why we limit ourselves to three to five new initiatives every quarter – no more.

In fact, during the third quarter of this year, we have only three new initiatives that we are focusing on in our retail and service businesses, no more. Instead of trying to take on too much, we focus on effective execution. We focus on meeting our deadlines and performance indicators that we set for ourselves. We don’t try to revolutionize things too quickly. Our goal at the end of each quarter is to make the company only 5% better. If we continuously focus on effective execution and meeting our objectives, then we will become 5% better each quarter, or 20% better each year.

Effective execution is key to running any successful company. Concentrate on fewer initiatives, but make sure you’re successful in those few that you do choose to focus on.

Useful Reads:

1. Business Execution (PDF)
2. Business Strategy: Execution Is the Key
3. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done (PDF)
4. Enterprise architecture as strategy: creating a foundation for business – Book Preview Below