The World's Most Admired Leaders
Ask Questions And Adopt… "Business Execution"

ABB Ltd., Percey Barnevik, Former Chairman (Current GM Director): "Thinking - the strategies and designs - only gets you 5-10% of the way. 90% is in the execution."

Accenture, Terry Neill, Former Chairman of Global Board: "Winners out-execute rather than outstrategize, their competitors."

Accenture, Walt Shill, Managing Partner, Strategy Practice: "Today, successful CEOs operate more like they are running white water rapids than sailing a great ship across the ocean. They must intensely focus on executing in the face of constant change. Successful teams are still very strategic, but they have evolved to embrace strategies that are pragmatic and highly focused on execution."

Accenture, George Shaheen, Former CEO: "We better remember that in the end, it's all about execution. You can be right on paper, but if you don't execute it, it's not going to work."

Access Health Intl., William A. Haseltine, Ph.D., Chairman and President: "There must be a shared vision, strong leadership, fully capable management and finally, superb execution."

Ace Hardware, Richard E. Laskowski, Former Chairman: "The heart of success is discovering the correct goal and then developing a plan of execution to reach it."

Aguila, Inc., Robert K. Green, Chairman: "Focus and execution are mandatory. The only thing you can really control, after all, is the performance of your company."

Alnylam, John Maraganore, CEO: "We expect momentum to continue across the key value drivers of our company: scientific leadership, pipeline advancement, intellectual property and business execution."

Albertson's, Larry Johnston, Former CEO: "When you get the best people, you don't have to worry as much about the execution, because they make it happen."

Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, Chairman, President and CEO, "The onus is on us to continue to execute well."

American General Financial Group, Robert M. Devlin, Former Chairman and CEO, (Current Cooper Industries Director): "Our ability to successfully execute our strategy has produced results that met or exceeded our long-term financial objectives."

AMR Corporation, Robert Crandall, Former CEO: "About half of the job of management is trying to figure out where the company is going to be 5 to 10 years down the road, and the second half is execution."

Andreesen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen, General Partner: A quote about Steve Jobs from Andreessen Horowitz: "He set the performance standard for product thinking and product execution that all the rest of us should aspire to hit."

Apple, Steve Jobs, Former CEO: "I have great confidence that Tim (Tim Cook) and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place."

Apple, Max Paley, Former VP Engineering: "It looks like it has become a more conservative execution engine rather than a pushing-the-envelope engineering engine."

Applied Materials, Mike Splinter, CEO: "Execution is often grinding and hard, so make employees part of the process."

ATT, Ed Whitacre, Former Chairman and CEO (Director Anheuser-Busch and BNSF Railway): "We want to be the only company for your entertainment and communications needs. We have the parts to do it -- we just need to execute."

AXA, Andrew Penn, CEO: "It is good execution more than strategy that separates leaders from players in the market place. It is in the execution and delivery where you succeed or fail. Ultimately, the role of the CEO is to provide a clear vision and direction and ensure it is well executed."

Bain & Company, Chris Zook, Partner: "The company that comes up with a formula to find and execute adjacency moves can bury its competitors."

Bakes & Company, Seth Bakes, President: "There is nothing better than a good strategy well executed. On the other hand, no matter how well you execute a flawed strategy, it is still a flawed strategy. And, you cannot improve a bad strategy with good execution, but you can ruin a good strategy with poor execution."

Balderton Capital, Bernard Liautaud, General Partner (Founder Business Objects): "We are proud that we have been able to establish this strong leadership through our consistent and focused execution in the marketplace."

Bausch & Lomb, Fred Hassan, Chairman: "With a focus on execution, it's amazing how much power can be unleashed."

Bausch & Lomb, Fred Hassan, Chairman: "In the long-term it is all about being different and better. And that means innovation and execution."

Brandon Hall Group, Brandon Hall, President: "Well-executed new ideas make the world go around."

Brinker Intl., Douglas Brooks, President and CEO: "Any craftsman or artist will tell you, the success of a vision is contingent upon its execution."

BTM, Faisal Hoque, Founder, Chairman and CEO: "Execution comes from creating and managing an operating blueprint on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. The board, the CEO, the management team and employees [at every level] have to be able to do that."

Caesar's Entertainment, Gary Loveman, President: "Flawlessly executing today's strategy is a paramount concern."

Canada Life Financial Corporation, David A. Nield, Director and Former Chairman, President and CEO: "Strategies do not implement themselves, people implement them."

Catalyst, Rick Wagoner, Director: "A lot of success in this business is having a big plan and implementing it better than the next guy."

CEOs in Tumultuous Times, Ram Charan, Author Article: "The COO must be superb at execution, and the CEO and COO must be able to communicate well and resolve any differences without consuming an extraordinary amount of time."

CFO Magazine, Ready, Set, Grow?, Kate O’Sullivan, Writer: "Growth will likely spring from improved execution and a very careful reading of customer needs."

Cheese Cake Factory, David Overton, Chairman and CEO: "Bringing a Western restaurant chain to the Middle East is an exercise in patience, creativity and strong execution."

Chicago Sun-Times, Sidney Harris, Columnist: "The idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run."

Chief Executive, John Brandt, President & Editorial Editor: "Your first 100 days are critical not to solve the problems (years in the making) but to impress investors that you have a plan and that you can execute."

Cisco Systems, John Chambers, President and CEO: "Besides the general market performance, we can always stumble or be out-executed by our competition."

Citibank, Ed Horowitz, Corporate Executive Vice President [Re: e-Citi]: "The overall execution has gone slower than I had aspired to... People have to come up to speed with the vision, embrace it, embed it in the business plan and get it implemented in the individual business."

Citigroup, Vikram Pandit, Chairman and CEO:"CEO drives execution decisions."

Coherent, John Ambroseo, President, CEO and Director: "We can not predict where or when the bottom of this cycle occurs, but we can and will take the necessary steps to ensure that our business execution and financial performance are commensurate with our position as a market leader."

Coldwater Creek, Inc., Daniel Griesemer, President and CEO: "Let me once again emphasize that 2008 continues to be a year of transition. A year for us to reenergize and sharpen the focus of the brand and our business execution."

Colgate-Palmolive, James S. Figura, VP, Colgate-US: "Execute with excellence and simply be everywhere at once."

Comforce, John Fanning, Chairman and CEO: "Integrity, competency and innovation don't mean a thing without execution."

Constellation, Mayo Shattuck III, Chairman: "The surge in profits reflects solid execution throughout the company."

Cornell International, Alan Guarino, CEO: "It takes the perseverance to stay the course, and the ability to execute."

Crosspoint Venture Partners, Steve Foster, Associate: "There's no shortage of capital or necessary ideas, but it's incredibly difficult to find the people to execute."

Dell, Inc., Kevin Rollins, Former CEO: "We have a strategy which is a Dell Direct business model, but then the key to its success is how well we implement it day in and day out. Anytime we fail to execute it is the biggest risk by far."

Dell Online, Richard Owen, Vice President: "Customer service is still the basis of loyalty. Outstanding execution is still as important as a good strategy."

The Denver Newspaper Agency, Kirk MacDonald, Former CEO: "Adoption of a fitness-focused lifestyle helped me become more innovative and get better at execution."

Disney, Robert Iger, Chairman and CEO: "Toy Story should get made. Now, you still have to have a great story and great execution -- and in the absence of that, you shouldn't make it."

Disney Interactive Media Group, Steve Wadsworth, President: "...the new unit will operate under two global lines of business in order to provide greater coordination on global content and global business execution: Disney Interactive Studios (DIS) and Disney Online (DOL)."

Do It Best Corp., Bob Taylor, President & CEO: "What would it look like if you did it?"

Do It Best Corp., Mike McClelland, Former President and CEO: "You can xerox anything that stands still. You can't copy anything moving."

DuPont, William Reilly about Ellen Kullman, Chairman & CEO: "I think that she is exactly the right person at this time. She has a reputation -- even among people outside DuPont -- as someone who executes."

eBay, about Meg Whitman, CEO, (by Tim Bajarin, Creative Marketing Strategies): "Vision is one thing and there's a lot of that in Silicon Valley. Execution is another. She's remarkable at actually getting things done."

E*Trade, Christos Cotsakos, Former CEO: "It's always been about building the right technology and executing on that idea so that we could use that for a variety of different areas and make it a disruptive technology."

Eclipsys, Harvey Wilson, Chairman Emeritus: "We have the proven ability to execute the strategy. If we don't continue to demonstrate that we can execute it, it just becomes words on paper."

EDB, Teo Ming Kian, Chairman: "If we know what Motorola or HP is going to do over the next three to five years globally, we can shape our policies so that we have everything they need in place to quickly implement their plans."

Electronic Data Systems, Les Alberthal, Jr., Former President and CEO: "Our livelihood depends on our ability to execute the soft stuff."

Enterprise Business Services, Lori Beer, Executive Vice President: "We are focused now on executing and delivering on our strategy as efficiently and effectively as we can."

Equinix, Steve Smith, President and CEO: "The strength of Equinix's continued demand and focus on business execution will allow us to extend or market leadership position."

Ethan Allen, Edward Teplitz, EVP: "It's up to leadership to initiate the beginnings of change, and then it's up to us and those below us to implement it. Once we decide the direction we need to come up with an implementation plan and just push it through."

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Ram Charan, leading U.S. Management Consultant and Author: "The emergence of world-class companies from developing nations is a shift that portends a new global game. Their leaders are good executors who see niches in the global economy and can tap world intellectual capital and financial markets to consolidate control across their industries."

Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer: "It's about execution, doing things faster and better, getting more users and more advertisers."

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., Donald H. Layton, CEO, : "We intend to be the provider of choice. That takes leveraging our leadership positions and remaining ahead of the curve in new ideas and the means to execute them."

Fifth Third Bancorp, George Schaefer, President: "The main difference between us and 225 different banks in Ohio, 125 to 150 thrifts and 570 credit unions is the human-service element. We focus on daily execution."

Fortinet, Ken Xie, Founder, President and CEO: "Increased market recognition, global large customer adoption and solid business execution are driving Fortinet's growth, which is outpacing the market."

Fortune, Peter Lewis, Writer: "To stay atop, you need not only flawless execution but also a blockbuster."

Fox Entertainment, Kevin Reilly, Chairman: "We've gotten the public comfortable with very high quality of execution."

Fundamentals, Jim Sullivan, Author: "Focus: knowing where and how the Fundamentals have to be applied if anything is to be executed."

Garage.com, Guy Kawasaki, Founder: "Either you ship a product and customers buy it, or not. That's execution and execution is why you get the big bucks and perks."

GE eXchange, Harvey Seegers, President and CEO: "In every case, the distinguishing factor between successful implementations and unsuccessful implementations is the involvement of the CEO."

General Electric, Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO: "Just worry about coming up with great ideas, getting the best people, and delivering a terrific execution. A leader is someone who can develop a vision of what he or she wants their business unit to be...and then can relentlessly drive implementation of that vision to a successful conclusion. I believe the desire and the ability, of an organization to continuously learn from any source, anywhere, and to rapidly convert this learning into action, is its ultimate competitive advantage. Information technology is the key to both the learning, as well as the rapid execution of the fruits of that learning."

General Electric, Jeff Immelt, CEO: "Everyone has a decent strategy, but how many have leaders at all levels of the organization who have the understanding, drive and skills to execute it in ways others cannot?"

Genomic Health, Kimberly Popovits, President and CEO: "My biggest focus is making sure we've got the right team in place to execute because -- clearly -- you can't do it alone."

George Mason University, Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics: "We don't need more suggestion boxes or more street mimes to fill people with a spirit of creativity. We instead need to better manage the flood of ideas we already have and to reward managers for executing them."

Giant Leap Consulting, Bill Treasurer, Founder: "When leaders make plans in a vacuum, they end up with no buy-in from the lower ranks. With no upfront buy-in, your ability to execute at the unit level is DOA."

GM, Noel Tichy, Advisor: "Execution for a dinosaur bureaucracy is rocket science."

GM, Rich Wagoner, CEO: "We're executing the turnaround plan at a pace that's faster than we thought we could."

GM, Bob Lutz, Former Vice Chairman, Marketing and Communications: "...the actual execution of messages to support the corporate strategies must be developed and executed by the marketing advertising and communications professionals."

Golden Corral, Ted Fowler, President and CEO: "You have to have a plan of where to go, how to approach a hunt in a particular field or area and then execute it."

Good to Great, Jim Collins, Author (on building enduring great companies and their executives response to change): "They respond -always- with a calm and penetrating search for understanding, followed by deliberate, thoughtful action. It's really a stream of decisions over time, brilliantly executed that accounts for great outcomes."

Google, Eric Schmidt, Former Chairman and CEO: "If you run the company as a set of extended conversations, you get a lot of buy-in, and buy-in drives execution."

Greiche and Scaff, Gayle Easterbrook, CEO: "It's the CEOs job to do the vision and the execution."

Hammer and Co., Dr. Michael Hammer, President: "Execution is extremely hard, and you need very careful metrics and instrumentation to know what you're talking about."

Harvard School of Business, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor: "Execution means having the mental and organizational flexibility to put new business models into practice, even if they counter what you're currently doing."

Hay Group, Mel Stark, Vice President: "In today's environment, true leaders must do far more than merely meet the numbers. To effectively implement strategy, they must put people first and continually connect with and motivate their human capital."

HCA, Thomas F. Frist, Jr., MD, Former Chairman and CEO, Current Director [Strategy Statement]: "We would not now be articulating a vision based on local focus and responsibility if we did not believe in the capability and commitment of the people who run our hospitals. Therefore, we ask you to join us by taking local ownership of this strategy and its successful execution in your hospital and community."

Hewlett-Packard, Carly S. Fiorina, Former CEO (Current Cybertrust Director): "You'd have the most brilliant deal in the world, and if you don't execute, it's worth nothing. Sharpen your vision, focus and execution. Re-imagine what you can be."

Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, President & CEO (by Tim Bajarin, Creative Marketing Strategies): "Vision is one thing and there's a lot of that in Silicon Valley. Execution is another. She's remarkable at actually getting things done."

Hewlett-Packard, Marius Haas, SVP: "My job is to lay out the key initiatives we need to focus on in order to execute the plan."

Hewlett-Packard, Ray Lane, Chairman: "Let's execute better while we figure out our long-term plan."

H. J. Heinz, William Johnson, Chairman, President and CEO: "One of the differentiating strengths of this company is our local autonomy and the way we execute strategy locally."

H. J. Heinz, William Johnson, Chairman, President and CEO: "Ultimately, it's knowing when to invest in an idea, when to cut your losses, and how to execute on the innovations you pursue that yields the big payoff: organic growth and value creation."

Home Depot, Inc., Dennis Donovan, Former Executive Vice President, HR: "The success of the strategy rests in people's execution."

Honeywell Intl., Larry Bossidy, Former CEO: "Success today is not simply about leading anymore. It must be about implementing, not just announcing, strategies."

HSBC Holdings, Sir John R. H. Bond, Former Chairman: "There are few original strategies in banking. There's only execution."

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Ann Winblad, Co-founding Partner: "The most important thing we learned is that optimism cannot outweigh execution."

IBM, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Former Chairman and CEO (Current Sloan-Kettering Director): "This technology stuff is hard. And if I'm a company, what I really want is somebody who can help me implement it."

Target, Robert Ulrich, Former Chairman and CEO: "It's not rocket science, but people need to be motivated. It's a more difficult strategy to executive if you're not."

TBWA\Worldwide, Jean-Marie Dru, Chairman: "Disruption has always been there. The only difference is people used to talk about it but didn't implement."

Teoco, Atul Jain, Chairman and CEO: "First to market doesn't always win. It's all about execution."

Textron, Stuart Grief, VP Strategy and Business Development: "If a company’s doing poorly, one of the first worthwhile diagnoses is an assessment of the quality of the strategy and its execution."

The Five Temptations Of A CEO, Patrick Lencioni, Author: "I think that having a great vision and mission is only important if you know how to execute. I’ll take a well-executing company over a visionary one any day."

The Five Temptations Of A CEO, Patrick Lencioni, Author: "Many of the CEOs I’ve worked with over the years secretly see themselves as chief technology, marketing, sales or innovation officers, and underestimate the 'execution' part of their role, which is most important."

Thomas Edison: "Vision without execution is a hallucination."

Tom Peters Group, Tom Peters, CEO: "The reality in most organizations is that execution too often turns into talking about execution. It becomes talking instead of doing. You must build a unified organization that is quick, bold and knows how to execute."

Tornante Company, Michael Eisner, CEO: "In addition to having valuable ideas, you must have an organization that can follow through and execute that good idea. A lot of people have good ideas, but not that many do anything about them."

Trendspotting, Robyn Waters, Speaker and Author (The Hummer and the Mini), "I have a mantra that I use for implementing great ideas: Make it real. Keep it simple. Make it happen. Too many great ideas fall by the wayside for lack of execution."

Tyler Perry Studios, Roger Bobb, Producer: "You've got to get it right, whatever it takes, for our vision to be implemented efficiently and instantaneously."

Unisys, Lawrence A. Weinback, Former Chairman, President, and CEO (Current UBS Director): "Vision and strategy are important, but the key to success is execution. What's behind this success? At Unisys, it comes down to two key factors: focus and execution. Execution is what will distinguish the winners from the losers. We've also spent a lot of time communicating and educating people about the importance of execution."

University of Alabama, Nick Saban, Coach: "Keep players and coaches focused on execution — yes, another word for process — rather than results."

UPS, Tom Weidemeyer, Former COO (Current Goodyear Director): "When we've had challenges executing, it's primarily been because we didn't truly understand the full nature of the undertaking and what it would take to be successful."

USAA, Robert T. Herres, Former Chairman and CEO: "It's easy to recognize the need for strategic planning: getting it right is the hard part."

VF Imageware, Mackey McDonald, Former Chairman: "...we didn't have to come up with brilliant ideas — we needed brilliant ways of executing good ideas."

Virgin, Sir Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman: "I can have an idea in the morning and have it implemented in the evening."

Volvo Financial Services, Sal Mauro, President and CEO: "The 'Big 5' tool, our appreciation for speed in decision making and our distaste for bureaucracy are advantageous to executing our plans decisively."

Walker Dental, Jay S. Walker, Former Chairman and CEO: "Execution is what keeps you up at night."

Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.: [Regarding Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO] "Disney under Mr. Eisner has proved the military wisdom that, more than a perfect plan, what counts is energetic, opportunistic execution."

Walt Disney's Four Pillars Of Success: "I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true."

Warnaco, Linda Wachner, Former CEO: "There are a few people in life who know how to think, and in our economy, the rewards are sensational for those people who can make things happen."

WebMD, Jeffrey Arnold, Former Chairman and CEO (Current Premier Global Services Director): "What keeps me up at night is that we've made big promises to big companies, and now we have to execute on them all."

Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Arnold Brown, Chairman: "If knowledge was power, college professors would rule the world. Execution is power. Execution is everything."

Wells Fargo, Richard M. Kovacevich, Former Chairman (On Distribution Strategy): "A vision and a strategy aren't enough. The long term key to success is execution. Each day. Everyday. The employees of your company continue to execute very well. Our success has nothing to do with planning, it has to do with execution."

Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, Chairman, President and CEO: "We could leave our strategic plan on an airplane, and it wouldn'’t matter. It's all about execution."

Westpac, David Morgan, Former CEO: "The most common reason CEOs fail is due to failures of execution, by getting too far away from the business. Execution was, is and always remains the number one priority, the 'must do' part of the job."

XOJet, Paul Touw, Chairman and CEO: "Like my father told me, there’s always money for great ideas and good business execution."

Yahoo! Inc., Jerry Yang, Co-Founder: "The execution of our business plan has been key to the company's success.

Zebra Technologies, Anders Gustafsson, CEO: "Strong business execution led to high international and North American sales growth for specialty printing and a sharp increase in our enterprise solutions business."