Comments on: It’s mostly in the execution. https://berkonomics.com/?p=1919&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=its-mostly-in-the-execution Dave Berkus' business insights Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:59:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Harry Keller https://berkonomics.com/?p=1919&cpage=1#comment-15194 Tue, 25 Feb 2014 16:59:20 +0000 https://berkonomics.com/?p=1919#comment-15194 The remark about plans versus execution brings to mind Lotus 1-2-3. There was no large formal business plan, but there was a plan. Hit the IBM PC market with all you’ve got and swamp those dabbling in that market. As always, execution was key. I knew Jon Sachs who wrote the software and even visited him while he was writing it. He was a talented assembly language programmer, but others could have done his job as well. Without great execution on the marketing side, 1-2-3 could have been just another attempt to enter the PC market.

My own business had great success in getting on the NYC purchasing system, a feat that many large companies failed at. Then, we set about selling there. We built up to a decent number of schools and decent revenue but could not really get past about 10% market penetration, and that dropped when NYCDOE changed their purchasing practices. So, we hired a local sales company. We no longer get 100% of our revenue, but our sales are much larger and will grow to 40-50% of the market. Also, we are now able to sell to elementary schools, something we could not even consider before. Our potential market size has expanded by 25% because of this.

As a result of that experience, we’re looking for other sales partners who already have the know-how in specific geographical areas.

Execute your plan efficiently and be ready to change it if the market tells you to. Sounds simple but the extreme noise of managing a start-up can mask those signals. You must pay attention to everything around you and notice anomalies.

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