March 10, 2023 – Authored by Perry Levine, Managing Director
People have lots of ideas.
Some people have the imagination that it takes to create something new and exciting. I have been fortunate to know people who have taken ideas and created a product. I have known even fewer people who have taken the idea and successfully launched into the market. There was one point in my career where I worked for a man who had a 90% hit rate for successfully launching his ideas. His Midas touch was amazing.
To have a truly innovative and marketable idea is a wonderous thing. That light bulb goes off and they are jotting down their hypotheses. Soon they are talking to friends and resources about that idea and even putting up funds to get a prototype constructed.
The prototype is completed and refined. It may be de-constructed and redesigned. Sometimes there is a “we’re going back to the drawing board” moment. But it always starts with an idea.
Steve Jobs said that after he left Apple, the new CEO, “John Sculley, got a very serious disease. It’s the disease of thinking that a really great idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people ‘here’s this great idea,’ then of course they can go off and make it happen.”
Jobs went on to talk about execution. The idea is the start, but it takes a lot more. “…[T]he problem with [the idea] is that there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product. And as you evolve that great idea, it changes and grows. It never comes out like it starts because you learn a lot more as you get into the subtleties of it.”
We all know that Steve Jobs had great ideas. But he also knew that from that initial idea to making it a successful product, it took experts in every discipline to monetize it. Jobs felt strongly about the process.
“Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.
And it’s that process that is the magic.”
Over the last six months, I have been in numerous meetings where a new product has been pitched to me and I could hear flashbulbs popping. What started as an idea — “I needed a way to do X, and after looking at the current market solutions, I knew I could do it better” — had morphed like a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
But what makes an idea successful? Bringing an idea to market takes more than just passion and ethos. It is even more difficult within the technology sector. In today’s competitive environment, no one can just “have an idea.” It takes commitment and execution. And execution only happens because of thoughtful, thorough discipline and expertise.
There are very few people who have the resources to bring together a team of experts to bring that idea to fruition. It is imperative to work with a team that can provide insights into the marketplace and guidance on organizational infrastructure and product launch activities.
Edison said, “I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing.” Knowing that there is a team of experts that can assist in getting from concept to client acquisition is a crucial step in idea maturation.
Ideas without execution will remain dreams.