Does a Great Idea Equal Great Success?

There’s a lot of talk among entrepreneurs about the value of an idea. Many entrepreneurs believe that a brilliant idea will spawn a great company. We read about companies like eBay that took one simple idea – on-line auctions – and turned it into a powerhouse company.

Yet ideas alone aren’t worth much. Very few companies, including eBay, became successful based on just an idea. Unless your idea turns into a patent that no one can replicate, it’s worth nothing until you can add the right elements to it.

Therefore a savvy entrepreneur will quickly try to back their idea with smart management, paying customers, and strategic partners as early as possible in order to build value around their idea. All of this can be done even before the company is ever officially launched, generating a ton of value in the formative stages.

Smart Management There’s an old saying that the wrong idea with the right management team can at least have a chance of surviving, but the right idea with the wrong management team is altogether doomed.

That’s because the true value of an idea isn’t about the idea itself, it’s about the execution of that idea. There were lots of companies that easily replicated the idea of on-line auctions to compete with eBay. Do you remember them? No? Neither do I. That’s because eBay’s management team executed so much better than their competitors who had the exact same idea.

You can brag and boast about your great idea, but unless you can pull together a team that can actually pull it off, you’ve got nothing. Investors are well aware of this fact, which is why they often evaluate their investments on the merits of the management team of a new startup company more so than the business idea itself.

You can pull together a management team on paper without having to actually hire all of the members. Many startups have commitments from each key member of their management team long before the company actually launches, and most of those folks will probably be working at their old jobs for a while even after the company launches.

Article taken from Go Big Network / http://www.gobignetwork.com/