Execute to Excellence
The missing link in most organizations is the execution and that too executing at breakneck speed which calls for utmost dedication, teamwork, passion and putting all the other six elements together.
An idea was born to me to write a book to succeed amidst a global pandemonium caused by COVID 19 and I would like to share the chronology of events that led to the execution of a book in a matter of less than two months.
April 9th
First Online Webinar conducted by me.
April 13th
An idea on should I go ahead and write a book on “Succeeding amidst Pandemonium Times”. I was already writing a book on Public Speaking and had completed only 30% of the book and was diligently writing the book during my personal quarantine with a deadline to complete the manuscript by the first week of May.
April 20th
Spoke with my publisher for the book on COVID 19.
April 22nd
Made the first payment for the book to the publisher. Same day Transcript works started.
May 13th
Final payment was made to the publisher.
May 10th to 19th
I was struck with how to take the book forward. I knew that the existing content was too small and I needed a BIG IDEA. I was doing research over the net but I am not a believer in writing a book out of the data you get on the internet.
I was asking questions to myself and could not even sleep properly for 10 days since I needed that BIG IDEA to take my project forward.
May 19th
Eureka Moment
Got the idea to engage CEO’s, business leaders, doctors, my clients, owners of hospitals and people who are at the forefront of the war to win the battle against COVID.
May 20th
Scheduled three interviews on May 20th and from there Almighty has led me to several great people whom I never knew. The power of relationships came to the forefront. I had conversations day-in and day-out with several positive-minded people who were more than happy to share their insights.
May 20th onwards
Assembled a strong and diverse team who would work on the back-end to transcribe all the conversations and give me raw data on which I would work deeper.
May 28th to June 2nd
Another challenge. On one side conversations were going on across the globe but what is the common thread that could be picked up was the big challenge? I needed to connect what my research was saying and what was being communicated by the business leaders?
Out of complete exhaustion on June 2nd for the first time, I hit the bed in the afternoon since I also had to do different trainings in the evening.
Once again, Eureka moment. I could visually see the Seven Elements in Succeeding amidst pandemonium times caused by the pandemic.
June 10, 2020.
Realized that I need a larger Beta level Reading team. Assembled a new team who were in no way associated with the transcription and this proved to be a game-changer. Rest is history.
Manuscripts were submitted by June 18th 2020.
This is my personal story of how I could work from idea to execution in less than two months. I am hopeful that this personal story of mine would inspire you to plunge into action and execute your ideas to excellence.
Idea to Execution in six days: Story from Sam’s Club
The Senior Director of Sam’s Club part of Walmart, Abishake Subramanian tells me that decisions that used to take months from idea to implementation are now coming to execution in a matter of days. He quotes the example of Sam’s Club decision to roll out a new concierge service to all 600 of its stores, whereby senior citizens and at-risk club members can shop at Sam’s Club without ever having to leave their cars. The entire shopping would be done in 16 minutes flat. Another funny and not so incidental fact is that it just took Sam’s Club six days to bring the whole concept from idea-stage to market. Just six days! What in the past could have taken a few months had just got done within six days. This was possible due to the engagement that Sam’s Club had with their members and understood the importance that customers felt about having a contactless shopping. Over the weekend they engaged with a few mobile application developers and in an unbelievable short span of time the services were made available to the customers.
Abishake tells me that the seniors with whom he used to meet physically once in 20 days started to have seven virtual meetings in a day and in turn he had several engagements with his team members and with vendors to ensure that they went live with the app in less than a week’s time. The culture of coming together and ‘we are in together’ made it possible is what he tells me. More importantly, the company is also discovering the awesome talent that they have. The end result of all this is that you have loyal club members and not just customers because you gave them a confidence that you can shop safely without coming into contact with anybody or anything. This is the reward of having what I call 360-degrees-engagement with all your stakeholders including your customers. When you deeply engage with customers you transform your customers into community members.
This is what happens when you empathize with the customers and understand their safety needs which is of paramount importance from now. Sam’s Club encouraged its employees to come with ideas and from there engagement started to happen at all levels and finally, people were empowered to make decisions and there has been a method to the madness in executing this idea with excellence within the shortest possible timeframe.
While many retailers in the USA are filing bankruptcy, Walmart is growing at 8% and Sam’s Club growth is at 16%. This is the reward for Empathy, Engagement, Empowerment and Excellence in Execution.
JVC Sreeram
Author of “No Reference Point” Listed No. 1 Hot New Seller in Entrepreneurship category at Amazon
