Despite Malaysia's credible number of excellent corporate endeavours, resounding global success continues to elude us. Is it possible that Malaysia is great on visions and concepts but generally weak on execution - a weakness that prevents us from attaining global recognition in the highly competitive business world? This lack might be overlooked by Malaysians themselves but our neighbours and rivals are not so forgiving.

Recently, this Achilles' Heel of ours was revealed in a report following a one-week joint mission to Malaysia in January, by the Ministry of Industry (MOI) of Vietnam and the Vietnam Development Forum (VDF). The visit was aimed at studying Malaysia's industrial policy for possible lessons for Vietnam.

The Jan 24, 2006 report, "MOI-VDF Joint Mission on Industrial Policy Formulation", said that "Compared with the drafting process, the implementation and review processes are less well-organised. IMP3 (Industrial Master Plan 3 (2006-2020) does not contain detailed action plans or policy matrices. It may contain a chapter on implementation, but this will not be detailed. Concrete implementation is left to annual budgets, Master Plans (five-year plans) and measures of relevant ministries and agencies. Similarly, there is no structured mechanism to monitor, assess, or revise an Industrial Master Plan. Another related question is how we should interpret missed targets. Some macro targets of IMP2 such as growth, were underachieved, and the desired domestic investment share of 60%, as opposed to FDI (foreign direct investment), was not realised."

Though execution is not spelt out, it appears to be the missing ingredient in Malaysia's efforts to be a global success. But what exactly does execution mean in this case?

What Execution Entails

The guru of execution, Prof Ram Charan, believes that execution has not been given the prominence it deserves. Charan, who co-authored the book "Strategy Execution: Your Competitive Advantage for Surviving into the Future", pinpoints execution as the rigorous and tenacious work of developing and proving the ideas. He states that conceiving a grand idea or broad picture is usually intuitive. "Shaping the broad picture into a set of executable actions is analytical, and it's a huge intellectual, emotional, and creative challenge. The intellectual challenge of execution is in getting to the heart of an issue through persistent and constructive probing."

What he means is that we Malaysians, including MIM members, must learn to drill deep down and look into the bedeviling details, and take action after we have conceptualised our visions and plans. That, in a nutshell, is what execution means.

Unfortunately, Malaysians tend to copy their Western counterparts in rushing their `visions' to the market and then leaving the marketplace to worry over the yawning chasms created due to the poor execution of the project itself. True, adopting a global outlook means one must go to the market with speed, yet speed can kill, especially if one ventures forth without the right mapping efforts. It is not wise to move very fast in the wrong direction. The Japanese and South Koreans, in contrast, spend an inordinate amount of time planning and masterminding their visions before executing with lightning speed once they are ready to go to the market. Is it any surprise why Japanese and Korean businesses are runaway successes and their products are today globally recognised? Would it not be better if we can spend more time in the planning and the execution stages so that success is assured?

Still, what exactly does execution entail? It means not accepting things at face value; it means constantly anticipating factors that might derail the vision, questioning and going to the root of what is likely to make or break a particular project. A management leader should not just delegate and sign off from a project; attention to the minutest details and putting in some out-of-the-box thinking are some of the ways in which the leader has a handle on the execution aspects of the business. Introducing a bare-knuckles review process and never underestimating the discipline needed to flesh out the corporate strategy itself are two ways to ensure great execution. The review should cover the gamut of ideas and facts and include all the permutations and combinations of different approaches. Charan advocates the need to assess the risks to take and where; the need to wade through details, discard the useless and assign the task of executing to those that matter while ensuring full synchronisation.

Right Focus

In my previous experience with technopreneurs, I've found them to be full of remarkably creative and innovative ideas with regard to starting new economy business but woefully short on their ability to execute and adapt, hence the high rate of casualties in the heyday of the dotcom frenzy. The ones that are still around today are there because they have excelled in executing. However, successful companies should also not be complacent because the comedown is just a drop away unless one executes with anticipatory diligence.

Charan says organisations don't execute unless the right people, individually and collectively, focus on the right details at the right time. He admits that for you as a leader, moving from the concept to the critical details is a long journey. The success stories of some companies in Japan, South Korea and the West for instance, show that only consistently good execution can lift our nation's aspirations and vision to a higher, more world class level.

Dr Wilson Tay is the Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Institute of Management. Catch Ram Charan in person at the seminar "Strategy Execution: Your Competitive Advantage for Surviving into the Future" in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26 June 2006. For more information please visit www.urban-forum.com or www.mim.org.my email malaysia@urban-forum.com or inquiries@mim.org.my