Rome wasn't built in a day

The most important aspect of strategy execution is slowly building up momentum.

It's very difficult to go from making a strategic decision to perfect project completion, without first aiming to build up a bit of momentum, aiming to just get things off the ground first, before committing huge amounts of money and time to the project.

A few years ago, we were working with a client who wanted to create new revenue streams from their existing assets, but they were not sure as to how their new offering would be received by the market.  

Over the years they had launched a few new innovations, having spent a lot of money on the execution, only to be disappointed when those projects failed as commercial ventures.  

Over time they became particularly gun shy and reluctant to try new things, fearing failure yet again.

So this new project called for an alternative approach.

Instead of pitching a perfectly polished new product, it was decided to present a very basic product offering just to test what demand there was for it and build up a bit of confidence and momentum in the idea, before officially investing lots of cash into its development.

The response to the idea from the market was overwhelming, money was then spent to fully develop the concept and the product went on to generate a lot of revenue from them.  

Going all-in on a bet where there is considerable uncertainty is risky.

A better approach is to aim to build it slowly, build a bit of momentum until you have the confidence to invest heavily into growth.

Rome, after all, wasn't built in a day.