Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

1
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• What is the only thing that we are sure is
  infinite?
• The Universe?
• Ideas?

2
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Cosomological constant problem suggests that the
  Big Bang may be followed by a Big Crunch so the
  universe may be bounded
• Ideas are infinite just try counting from zero
  to infinity!
• Zero is a complex concept first used in India and
  Mayan civilization and brought to Europe through
  Arabia numbers definitely represent ideas
  (Q.E.D.)

3
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• What is the value of something in infinite
  supply?
• Economic theory of Supply and Demand suggests
  value approaches zero!
• 30 million clever, hard-working Americans and
  millions more around the world are thinking up
  clever new ideas every day!

4
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Mathew Lafrance, Allan Ghosn, Christian Ste.
  Marie and Mat Bouchard
• 5 ideas for business startup
• Each one worse than the one before, ending in
  SILENT ALARM CLOCK!
• Except for one

5
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• GradeAStudent.com (Now GradeATechs.com)
• Only one problem they said NerdsOnSite.com
  already up and going
• Is this a problem?

6
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• No!
• Strong value proposition
• Huge and growing market
• If it is a good idea, there will be competition
• If it is a bad idea, there wont be but so what?
• Its a BAD idea!

7
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Out execute the competition
• Provide superlative Customer Service
• GASnet reverses out the work to clients and
  suppliers
• Match making service between techies and clients
• For first time ever, a service business is
  scalable due to the Internet

8
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Bring Back the Senators Campaign 1987 to 1990
• What does Toronto have that Ottawa doesnt?
  Bruce Firestone to himself, 1987
• A zoo, a theme park, a NHL Team!

9
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Out execute the competition
• Purchase 600 acres for Palladium (now SBP)
• Pre-sell 15,000 PRNs for season tickets (at 25
  each)
• Sign up 500 corporate sponsors (at 500 each) and
  32 original corporate sponsors (at 15,000 each)
• Lobby the 21 members of the NHLs BOG and its
  President

10
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Dont take No for an answer, late Professor of
  Economics O. J. Firestone, U Ottawa to his son
  Sept.1990
• You will never, ever get a NHL Team in Ottawa,
  anon. BOG member the night before the NHL awards
  the Senators to Ottawa, Dec. 6, 1990

11
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Make sure that the last face the BOG sees before
  they make their decision is yours, Norm Seagram,
  former member of TOOC to Bruce Firestone
• Last two faces the BOG see Phil Esposito (Tampa)
  and Bruce Firestone
• The NHL is pleased and proud to announce
  franchises have been awarded to Tampa and
  Ottawa, five hours later.

12
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• After winning the franchise, you
• Party all night?
• Do a few media interviews, leave for Miami, fly
  to Montreal, drive to Ottawa, prepare to sell 22
  million in cash worth of season tickets in ten
  days in late December 1990 for a team that wont
  play (and win) its first game until October 8,
  1992?

13
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• John, what was the vote?
• It was unanimous.
• Surprise phone call three weeks later

14
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• You have a great idea satellite digital radio!
• You start Sirius or XM for a few billion dollars
  each
• Great idea, right?

15
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Huge institutional barriers to entry the car
  companies
• Huge technological and technical hurdles
• Huge start up costs
• Huge cost to acquire first customers
• Lose a few billion more on operations, so now
  what do you do?

16
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• You sign up Howard Stern for 500 million and
  Oprah Winfrey for millions too
• You couldnt think of anything else?

17
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• So now what?
• Merger proposal is on the table
• Monopoly is the answer higher prices for
  consumers, less choice and poorer customer
  service!
• Is that the best you can do?
• And dont forget, US anti-trust laws will now
  come into play

18
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Go back and look at your Business Model!
• Possible answer take the satellite out of
  satellite radio
• Distribute the signals through the Internet
• Put your content on AOL Radio too for
  re-distribution
• Huge expansion of their market and much lower
  costs

19
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Gadgets and Gizmos do not make a business
• Bell Control circa 1985 taught me that

20
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• You are not the market
• No one else wanted to turn off their phones!
• You need top notch execution and a sustainable
  competitive advantage to successfully implement a
  viable business model

21
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Google was not first search engine
• But they had a better algorithm, neutral,
  TRUSTWORTHY results and much better execution
• More than 10 interviews now required to get hired
  on by Google
• Sergei Brin and Larry Page recognize that it is
  NOT your assets or your IP that produce profits,
  its your people

22
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• People like to buy from people they like and
  trust
• Suppliers trust you to pay them
• You trust them to deliver on time
• Clients trust you to deliver and you trust them
  to pay you

23
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Trust is the foundation of a successful career
• Once you establish trust, you become part of the
  (business) ecosystem that will sustain you, your
  business and your family for a long time

24
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Kevin Rose, Founder, Digg.com
• Kevin Rose made 60 million in 18 months
• How did he do that?
• a) JOB?
• b) Entrepreneurship?

25
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• DIGG.COMS DIFFERENTIATED VALUE?
• It is a new model for a newspaper uniquely
  adapted to the Internet
• It is not simply the online version of the New
  York Times or some classified advertising page
  transferred to the Internet
• It is a digital community made up of a fairly
  homogenous demographic80 are male, mainly young
  techie readers
• Readers are also contributors
• Readers dig up interesting stories from all over
  the web and post brief synopses to the site and
  links to them whereupon other readers vote on
  themthe most popular ascend the page

26
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• The site harnesses the competitive instincts of
  the readers/contributors to compete to see whose
  story will lead
• The site works because of its homogeneous
  demographiccontributors only post stories that
  will be of interest to the group
• The site is dynamicleading stories change by the
  minute or hour
• Digg.coms cost for headline writers ZERO
• Digg.coms cost for journalists ZERO
• Digg.coms cost for editors ZERO
• Digg.coms cost for distribution ZERO (at
  least, the marginal cost is practically zero)

27
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Diggs sustainable competitive advantage is its
  business model and its readership
• You might be able to knock off its business model
  but it is extremely difficult to knock off its
  millions of dedicated readers
• The key is that the readership is relatively
  homogeneous and has similar interests

28
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Web 2.0 works because
• Custom outputs from standard inputs
• Scalable
• Network effects
• Reverse out the work
• User generated content
• Match making systems
• And more!

29
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Open source
• Peer to peer
• SEO
• And more!

30
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Something new!
• Something unexpected!

31
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• The Mechanical Turk
• The anti Dr. Strangelove
• The opposite of Fail Safe

32
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Putting the human back in the loop!
• Who selects to stories that go up on Digg.coms
  site?
• People do that
• Who votes them up (or down)?
• People do that (better than any algorithm)

33
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Naver.com out competed Google in Korea!
• How did they do that?
• By replacing the Google algorithm with a natural
  language search tool that allows users to ask
  questions
• Which are then answered by other users!
• The Mechanical Turk is inside the system!

34
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Who else does that?
• Wikipedia for one
• Put the human being back in the loop and develop
  a better business model will give you a
  sustainable competitive advantage and probably a
  better experience for users

35
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE THREE THINGS TO START YOUR
  BUSINESS WITH, I WOULD RECOMMEND
• Launch clients and customers
• A good business model
• Sound execution.

36
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• I WOULD PLACE MUCH LESS EMPHASIS ON
• A great, never-before-tried idea
• Bank financing
• A partner
• Access to government grants
• Access to VC financing.

37
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Where have all the Heroes gone?
• 19131994 the greatest Generation ever?
• What did they overcome?
• Two World Wars
• The Flu Pandemic
• The Great Depression
• The Cold War

38
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• What did they do?
• Internal Combustion Engine
• The Rocket
• The Integrated Circuit
• The Computer
• The Internet

39
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• How did they do it?
• Focus and Discipline
• Confidence and Imagination
• Ability to Execute
• Bravery and Sacrifice

40
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Whats missing today?
• The next generation of entrepreneurs
• How come China and India are doing so well?
• Entrepreneurs unleashed by National Governments
• Emphasis on education and technology
• Reduction in bureaucracy
• CONFIDENCE!

41
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• What do many western Governments believe in?
• Everything today is a cost not an investment
• Everything must be regulated
• Its all about rights not responsibility

42
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• Ever feel like going somewhere else?

43
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• What will happen to Western Nations?
• They will act and react
• They will reform their institutions
• Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship will prevail
  not only in business but also in other
  organizations from NGOs and not-for-profits to
  charities and educational institutions

44
Execution Counts, Ideas are Not Enough

• REMEMBER ENTREPRENEURS WOULD RATHER BEG FOR
  FORGIVENESS THAN ASK FOR PERMISSION!