A New Way to Think

10

Execution

Accept that it’s the same thing as strategy.

The idea that execution is distinct from strategy has become firmly ensconced in management thinking over the past two decades. Where the idea comes from is not certain, but in 2002, in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble, Jamie Dimon, now CEO of JPMorgan Chase, opined, “I’d rather have a first-rate execution and second-rate strategy any time than a brilliant idea and mediocre management.” In the same year, Larry Bossidy, former AlliedSignal CEO, coauthored the bestselling book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, in which the authors declared, “Strategies most often fail because they aren’t well executed.”

But the doctrine that execution is the key to a strategy’s success ...