I am sitting at a board meeting, observing how a portfolio company of ours is out-executing its competitors by a wide margin.  Surprisingly, the primary narrative in tech startups is innovation, invention and capital leverage, and not on strong execution.  However, in my experience, strong execution has been biggest success factor.

In 2001, when Jim Collins published his influential book, Good to Great, he showcased how some companies were out-executing their competitors.  The difference between Gillette andWarner-Lambert was remarkable.  Similarly, it’s not difficult to see how much better Walmart has been out-executing Sears/K-Mart for decades.  A look at the stock chart provides a quick reminder.

By contrast, in the tech industry, the discussion digresses to innovation silver bullets, very quickly.  The tech press looks for headline-making bold claims.  VCs try to see how a company’s business model can create an unfair advantage.  Founders, consequently, come to us pitching some clever shortcut they have figured out.

No one questions what a big difference execution has made in the Walmart -Sears case, but when you argue the same for an e-commerce company, eyebrows go up: “Are you sure?  Was it not through a high-tech warehouse, or drone delivery?”, is the question you get.

We see over and over that the winners usually get there by fanatical execution: sweat, hard work and resilience.  I think we need to celebrate execution more in the tech community.