The following transcript is from an interview conducted with Albert Durig, Co-founder of Triviam Consulting on December 13, 2019 about Execution Excellence and why it matters more today than ever before. Interview was conducted by Bejamin Gil from Axialent LLC.
Q1. What is Execution Excellence? What does it mean?
A1. Execution Excellence refers to a commitment to raise the level of productivity created during execution. It means advancing the effectiveness of how people collaborate in teams to produce desired outcomes. It’s about raising the standard by which people collaborate to execute, deliver a desired outcome, and do so with increasing levels of quality and consistency.
Q2. Why does Execution Excellence matter?
A2. Effective Execution matters because it’s ultimately about increasing productivity, which in turn impacts revenue and profit. Excellence in execution should result in higher value to customers, which in turn should be reflected in revenue, profit and competitive advantage.
Q3. Is Execution Excellence a state you actually achieve?
A3. It depends on how you choose to measure Execution Excellence. If you are able to achieve new goals for the execution of a project and meet or exceed them, you can say you have achieved a new level of Execution Excellence. However, Execution Excellence is not a single state. It is a commitment to increasing value through increased productivity and effectiveness of collaboration. As long as a team or company is increasing their value through the manner in which they coordinate action and collaborate, they are successfully pursuing Execution Excellence.
Q4. As Aristotle said ,“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Do you subscribe to that? Why? Or, Do you subscribe to the famous saying "The road to excellence is always under construction.?” Why?
A4. Execution Excellence is a road that’s always under construction. This is because there is no one final state to be achieved. As soon as a new level of excellence is achieved, a new goal for improving on that level can be set, making the pursuit of Execution Excellence a never ending journey. Execution excellence is about continuous improvement which in turn requires a commitment to learning and believing performance can always be taken to new heights.
Q5. How does Execution Excellence create competitive advantage?
A5. Execution Excellence and its pursuit results in a team of people committed to ever increasing goals of performance, productivity and effectiveness. As such, their mindset is growth-based, learning-based, and results-based. Their commitment to continuous improvement results in a culture of collaboration that itself becomes a powerful asset that is very difficult to copy in a short amount of time. Unlike other types of competitive advantage such as technology, price, location which can be matched in short order, Execution Excellence takes time to achieve and time to match by competitors, and once competitors match the levels of productivity of your team, your team has already moved ahead to the next level.
Q6. How has Execution Excellence evolved over the years?
A6. The answer to this question requires that we understand the link between execution and productivity. In fact, productivity is a measure of execution. As such, we can follow the history of productivity. Two hundred years ago with the rise of the Industrial Revolution, the use of new mechanized machines and steam power increased productivity. This was then followed by the advent of the assembly line which in turn took productivity to new levels by harnessing the value of sequencing assembly on a large scale. With the introduction of electricity factories and machines became more efficient than under steam power. The introduction of the telephone and telegraph further added to productivity by increasing the speed at which information flowed. Then came computers, micro-chips, personal computers and software which all added to the amount of work individual people could produce. Followed by the Internet, social media, big data and data analytics, more and more information flowed and could be harnessed to further raise productivity. Throughout this history, the majority of focus has been on pursuing productivity via the advancement of technology. This continues today. Now, we are on the precipice of AI and the power of machine thinking at a rate higher than humans can achieve. But there remains an important resource to be developed which we call the “Human Dimension” which refers to the beliefs and behaviors people develop that can improve the way in which they collaborate and the productivity derived by how they work together. It’s not about technology, but about interaction. I consider collaboration to be a next frontier in the pursuit of increasing productivity. And it’s no wonder it’s taken this long to identify and work on. It can be easier to develop technologies external to ourselves, than having to look in the mirror and identify areas for improvement within our own being, beliefs, and behaviors.
Q7. What is the role of Conscious Business in Execution Excellence?
A7. In its essence, Conscious Business is about the development of attitudes of individual empowerment and specific skills for improving interpersonal communications, relationships and collaboration. As such, the way in which people work together is at the core of what Conscious Business serves.
Q8. What's the relevance of the human dimension in Execution Excellence? But the technical dimension is also important, right?
A8. Perhaps the best way to look at it is that all execution is about delivering in the technical dimension in order to improve business results. Execution Excellence recognizes that the human dimension plays a critical role in supporting execution goals in the technical dimension. In business, the human dimension exists to serve the technical dimension in order to deliver a business outcome. If we ignore the role and potential of the human dimension for improving productivity and effectiveness we greatly limit a business’ ability to leverage the technical dimension and impact business results.
Q9. Are there specific challenges a company needs to face in order to benefit from an Execution Excellence approach? Which are typical?
A9. The pursuit of excellence in anything can be a worthwhile endeavor. And the pursuit of excellence in execution is not limited by a certain kind of challenge. However, in business, we must always weigh the cost verses the benefit received. Execution excellence is not something a company pursues for free. It takes time, support, technology and people’s willingness to make possible. Therefore, I can mention a number of large-scale challenges companies face wherein the benefits gained by pursuing Execution Excellence outweigh their cost. For example, when a large multi-national company needs to change and implement a new organizational structure. This type of work is usually driven by a centralized team in charge of the roll out. Another example would be a company who needs to deploy a new operations model, also a type of work driven by a roll out team. The launch of a new category of products or services is another example. The roll out of agile business practices across an entire company and in multiple geographies could be another example. Strategic planning and the cascade of objectives and strategies throughout an organization is another classic challenge that benefits greatly from pursuing Execution Excellence. And I’ll end with one more example that is the digital transformation many multi-national firms are facing today. These are probably some of the more common challenges companies face that would benefit from pursuing Execution Excellence.
Q10. Why are you so passionate about Execution Excellence?
A10. Execution is all about how people work together to get things done. It’s about collaboration and technology. It’s at the cross-roads of the technical and human dimensions of business. I’m so passionate about it because, it’s an opportunity to see and work on society in the context of a microcosm that is today’s modern business enterprise. It’s akin to social engineering on a smaller scale, with more immediate results, and for a noble purpose. That purpose being the growth of an organization that provides a service to society and upon which people depend for their livelihood. My interests have always been in psychology, sociology, human behavior, history, philosophy and science. Execution in today’s modern company allows me to indulge my curiosity in each of these interests while helping people achieve their goals.
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