Know Why It Failed

“Oh that, idea? We’ve done that before 5 years ago!  Let me save you some time.”

Being a leader is tough.  Not only do you have to pick a good idea, but you have to get the execution right.  It struck me the other day that many times when people move onto a new idea, org structure, whatever, they don’t have a clear picture of why the old one was not appropriate other than:

It was done by my predecessor.

There are a whole set of reasons why something fails, and only by getting the most important ones right can you succeed.

  • Wrong idea

  • Wrong rollout to org

  • Wrong message

  • Wrong funding

  • Wrong market

  • Wrong follow-on effort

  • Wrong time

  • Wrong leader

  • Wrong team

  • Wrong company

  • Wrong alignment between groups

  • Wrong contributor

  • Wrong process

  • Wrong metrics

  • Wrong price

  • Wrong goals

  • Wrong tweaks in response to feedback

There are many more than this. Which ones are most important to you?  To success of your effort?

Often, the  job of a leader is to take a failed idea – one that no one thinks will work – and with the right root cause analysis, tweak one or all of these and have it succeed.

Ever wonder what Jeff Bezos means when he says “Stubborn on vision, flexible on details?”  

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
Previous
Previous

eBay in 2019: The Cash-Generating eCommerce Turtle

Next
Next

Is Bed Bath & Beyond In Trouble with Activist Investors?