The Other 98% of the Problem...
...is Execution. You can plan and pro forma all you want, have your pitch down cold, attain your approvals, but execution is the key skill in our chosen profession.
I was reminded of this when I spent some time at an exclusive Napa winery last week. The fact that execution was a key part of the plan was evident from the moment you arrived on the property. The carefully tended hillside vineyards, the winery building designed by Howard Backen, the oak fermenters, the spotless crush pad.
Their goal? To be the American Premier Cru, a wine that defines Napa and New World winemaking. To create an operation that would be the equal of the world's great wine houses.
And their execution? The branding, the viticulture, the winery practices all resonated with the quality needed to achieve this status.
Execution can make a bad deal survivable, a good deal great, and a great deal...well. you get it.
Execution is focus, awareness, and agility. It's understanding what can be done--Gen. Douglas MacArthur's father told him, "Never give an order that can't be obeyed'.
It's how you finish, not how you start that defines how successful your projects are.
