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The Art of Execution
Guy Kawasaki of How to Change the World | January 13th, 2009 - 11:08 PM
(135) found this useful. Do you? 
When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: “Whose?”—Don Marquis
In the movie The Candidate, the Robert Redford character mouths “Now what?” after he gets elected. Most entrepreneurs ask the same question after they get funded. The answer is, “Now you have to deliver.” And the next question is, “How do we deliver?” This is where the art of execution comes in, and in times like this, you either execute or you die—no pun intended.
- Create something worth executing. You’re going to get tired of my obsession with great products and services, but pitching, demoing, bootstrapping, and executing are a lot easier if you’ve created something meaningful. It’s hard to stay motivated and excited about executing crap. It’s easy if you’re changing the world. So if you and your team are having a hard time executing, maybe you’re working on the wrong thing.
- Set goals. The next step is to set goals. Not just any kind of goals, but goals that embody these qualities:
- Measurable. If a goal isn’t measurable, it’s unlikely you’ll achieve it. For a startup, quantifiable goals are things like shipping deadlines, downloads, and sales volume. The old line “What gets measured gets done” is true. This also has ramifications for the number of goals, because you can’t (and shouldn’t) measure everything. Three to five goals measured on a weekly basis are plenty.
- Achievable. Take your “conservative” forecasts for these goals and multiply them by 10 percent; then use that as your goal. For example, if you think you’ll easily sell a million units in the first year, set your goal at 100,000 units. There is nothing more demoralizing than setting a conservative goal and falling short; instead take 10 percent of your forecast, make this your goal, and blow it away. You might think that such a practice will lead to underachieving organizations, because they aren’t being challenged—yeah, well, check back with me after you don’t sell a million widgets.
- Relevant. A good goal is relevant. If you’re a software company, it’s the number of downloads of your demo version. It’s not your ranking in Alexa, so telling the company to focus on getting into the top 50,000 sites in the world in terms of traffic is not nearly as relevant as 10,000 downloads per month.
- Rathole resistant. A goal can be measurable, achievable, and relevant and still send you down a rathole. Let’s say you’ve created a content Web site. Your measurable, achievable, and relevant goal is to sign up 100,000 registered users in the first ninety days. So far, so good. But what if you focus on this body count without regard to the stickiness of the site? So now you’ve gotten 100,000 people to register, but they visit once and never return. That’s a rathole. Ensure that your goal encompasses all the factors that will make your organization viable.
- Postpone, or at least de-emphasize, touchy-feely goals. Touchy-feely goals like “create a great work environment” are bull shiitake. They may make the founders feel good. They may even make the employees feel good. But companies that reach on measurable goals are happy. Those that don’t, aren’t. As soon as you start missing the measurable goals, all the touchy-feely stuff goes out the window.
- Communicate the goals. Many executive teams set goals but don’t communicate them to the organization. For goals to be effective, they have to be communicated to everyone. Employees should wake up in the morning thinking about how they’re going to help achieve these goals.
- Establish a single point of responsibility. If you ask your employees who is responsible for a goal, and no one can answer you in ten seconds, there’s not enough accountability. Good employees accept responsibility. Great employees seek responsibility. Lousy employees avoid responsibility.
- Follow through on an issue until it is done or irrelevant. Many organizations set goals and even measure progress toward them. However, after a short time, some goals are no longer on the radar because people start focusing on the coolest and most interesting stuff . For example, fixing bugs in the current version of a software application is not as interesting as designing a new, breakthrough product—but your current customers think it is. Legend has it that Pat Riley, the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, measured stats of his players and posted each player’s progress on his locker.
- Reward the achievers. Rewarding the people who achieve their goals has two positive effects. First, the achievers become even more excited about doing their job. Second, the under- and nonachievers know that the company takes execution very seriously. The form of the reward can be money, stock options, time off —whatever works to serve notice to everyone that “this person delivered.”
- Establish a culture of execution. Execution is not an event—a onetime push toward achieving goals. Rather, it is a way of life, and this way of life is set in the early days of the organization. The best way to establish this culture is for the founders, particularly the CEO, to set an example of meeting goals, responding to customers, and heeding and measuring employees. This obsession should include the CEO’s answering e-mails and responding to phone calls.
- Heed your Morpheus. Morpheus is the character in The Matrix who gave Neo the choice between the blue pill and the red pill. He was, essentially, the adult supervision. Cold, brutal reality is the ally of execution, so find a Morpheus who distributes the red pills and enables employees to see things as they really are.
When the hype dies down, a company either executed or it didn’t. Put aside the brilliance of your idea, the qualifications of your world-class team, and the hype surrounding your launch. Either you ship a product and customers buy it, or not. That’s execution, and execution is why you get the big bucks and perks.
Reprinted by permission from Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.
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Imran Anwar | January 13th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
In the case of my latest project, nEternity (”Live, Forever”, link below) I did not have to worry about funding, but the points and issues raised above are even more relevant.
I think this is a great summary , almost the outline most popular books on how to do anything well are based on. Guy Kawasaki always does a great job of summarizing things or turning them into books that are also very readable.
Imran
“Live, Forever” - http://neternity.org
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bob wan kim | January 13th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Guy… one point of departure… #2 Achievable. Personally… If my goals are “realistic” they are not exciting. Challenge is a fantastic motivator.
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David Damore | January 13th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Execution is almost everything. An IDEA is nothing without execution to #MakeItHappen.
If you are reading the writings of Guy Kawasaki you probably have some good IDEAS. Take those IDEAS and solve consumer problems. Go out and make great things.
Lots of great things happen as a result of good IDEAS executed well. Consumer approval in the form of little pieces of paper with green ink [$]. Job creation…
Go create some customers by executing your IDEA.
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Raymond T. Hightower | January 13th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Execution & discipline are two character traits that we (especially me) need to consciously develop in ourselves every day. Thank you for a great post and a strong source of reinforcement. Another favorite is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Bossidy & Charan.
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La Mom in Paris | January 14th, 2009 at 4:24 am
Merci Guy for a great article. I think it’s easy to take your ideas and apply them from everything to a new startup, a blog, running a volunteer organisation, or managing the household staff.
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William Gaultier | January 14th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Nice post Guy.
A nice cheat sheet for any CEO or senior manager of a start up or a growing company for that matter.
I would say you missed one important part - passion. If the founders, the CEO and senior managers are passionate - it will propagate through the organization.
Thanks again!
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A.J. Pape | January 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Guy I think you’re inexact and wrong about what you call the “touchy-feeley stuff.” You’re lumping time-wasting dreck together with other stuff that really makes execution happen.
I blogged about this today but I’m pretty new to the online blogging/commenting world and I don’t know if it’s poor taste to link here, or frankly even how I’d do it.
I do like your other points though so thanks.
A.J. Pape
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Roshan Thomas | January 14th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I read somewhere “Coming up with the idea is a hell of a lot easier than making it work”.
Thanks Guy for such simple, humorous but useful distillation on art of execution
Roshan
http://roshanthomas.blogspot.com/
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Diane | January 14th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Guy - wish I could make this article required reading for all of my start-up clients! They drink the kool-aid after they are funded and forget they actually have to deliver.
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Ian Brodie | January 14th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Point #1 is so vital - in almost anything in life, not just for entrepreneurs. I spend over a decade helping large companies run transofrmation programmes. My major finding was that the route to success was not to employ mystical “change management” techniques (to somehow get people to do what you want them to do). It;s to make what it is you want to do worthwhile in the first place so that they’ll willingly do it.
The number one reason for resistance to change? It’s not politics, or fear of the unknown, or lack of skills or unwillingness to get out of your comfort zone. It’s that the change itself is flawed and people are right to resist it. Want less resitance to change? Get a better “change”.
Ian
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Nitin Agarwal | January 14th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Read Reread these
Understand, Remember and execute your organization well
Follow these things to the hilt
This is one of the bestest and most comprehensive books I have ever read
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Sarah Hamilton | January 14th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Guy, this is a great post and a very important topic. We hear frequently about the need for goals to be well-defined and measurable, but this is the first post I’ve seen that talks about the value in being “rathole resistant” - an equally important element that also ties back to relevance.
Responsibility is also key, as you point out. Great employees seek responsibility, and I would venture to add that they also succeed in motivating others to join the cause and share the load, while the ultimate accountability for each goal or deliverable must reside with one person.
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Sapam | January 14th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Really great and enriching article. Thanks for sharing. IDEA formation is relatively easier when compared to making that IDEA deliver results. And i guess that’s where the art of execution makes a great difference.
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Iyabo Asani | January 14th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
This is a fantastic post about execution. Sometimes as a solo-prenuer, it can be difficult to have high and measurable goals as you can get complacent if your bills are getting paid each month.
What you wrote is applicable to large companies or solo-prenuers with no staff.
Thank you.
Iyabo Asani
http://www.AuthenticChangeCoach.com
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chris kim | January 15th, 2009 at 12:41 am
I echo Mr. Hightower’s recommendation for Larry Bossidy’s book on execution. Quick read, similar points.
I once worked for a large bank that drilled Six Sigma and execution mantras into our poor little heads. One pitfall with goals/metrics is excessive time spent defining goals and how to measure the metrics. Startups rarely have the luxury to waste time on this — I might suggest focusing on, “What is my definition of victory?”, and answering that question, or something similar, in less than ten seconds, and then moving straight on with the work.
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Steve | January 15th, 2009 at 9:18 am
all good points but I am confused a bit with #3. establishing your culture is absolutely critical and having a great work environment is a part of that. Culture drives behavior and behavior drives habits and habits determine productivity and productivity drives success. This isn’t about getting free pizza on Fridays. It’s about your employees self image and image about the company. Things like a fresh branding in correlation with a clear and concise direction that’s clearly laid out the employees is critical, a professional attractive work environment that clients and employees love to be in and ties to your brand perception. if you’re just speaking to things like new crazy expensive office chairs then I can see your point to a degree as not to prioritize that above execution issues. it’s more important that employees feel their self worth and direction within an organization so I don’t think you should discount the importance of culture and environment.
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Curtis | January 19th, 2009 at 7:01 am
As other comments have pointed out Execution is far more important than the idea.
It draws on a combination of Diligence, Persistence, Toughness, Savvy, Leadership, Discretion, Judgment, Courage, Focus… In other words, execution makes a really big difference.
- Curtis
http://ShipItOnTheSide.com - Build a software startup as a side job.
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Yan Charbonneau | February 2nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
Setting goals is the key! I set goals everyday, i write a huge list of things i need to achieve, at first it always seems too long but it motivates me to do it all! The tough part is to have employees do the same…
- Yan
http://www.vinivino.com
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