Which is Most Important? The "Idea" or the "Plan"

I agree with John McCabe:
" It isn't so much a matter of importance as it is of sequence.
First comes the idea. Then comes the plan. Next is the action."

However. I would add the fourth component and that word is:

Completion

Without completion - the idea, the plan and the action are made void.

Gary Dahl sat a bar and had an IDEA. He and his buddies played around with having a PET, and the rock was the perfect pet. He fully developed his IDEA via a PLAN OF ACTION to bring the Pet Rock to the market. But his plan was fully fleshed out in the IDEA...nobody was going to buy a Pet Rock, but Dahl was a marketing guy.

He knew it needed a hook, a "story" and he knew how and when to market it. The Pet Rock took off at a "gift" trade show, where the packaging and "story" of having a Pet Rock were introduced and the buyers went nuts with it.

It had a short shelf life, by design, the marketing strategy was "genius" and the plan came about from the IDEA, which was how to make a million bucks, selling a novelty gift item, and to do it in as fast as time as possible.

IF he had not had the IDEA, along with a fully fleshed out PLAN of ACTION (based on the reality of gift item marketing), then it wouldn't have come about.

As to your question as to whether a POOR idea can "almost always turn out great if the plan (marketing) is great"...well NO. New coke. The edsel.

In fact there are books full of "ideas" which were executed with magnificent PLANS and they cost companies millions of dollars.

So, my answer to your question is, NO, a poor idea with a great plan just doesn't work. Likewise, there have been great ideas with poor plans that have failed too.

But, I'm not giving in on the position that an IDEA has to take place first, and even then, it may not be the right idea for the person who has it. They might do better turning the idea over to someone more suited to bringing it to the market place.

As for "fridges to eskimos", that is copywriter hype thinking and old world used car salesman thinking, and maybe why we have so much frustration here at the WF due to people buying the WSO filled with a "great plan", they being the eskimos NOT in need of a fridge?

Give me a good idea, and I'll find someone to execute it, iffin I can't.

gjabiz

Both play a role and the importance of either in accomplishing your goals varies.

I have a military background. I'm sure you've heard of the phrase "no plan survives contact with the enemy". I believe the same is true for business plans. If you listen to the stories of company founders you'll find that once they entered the marketplace they needed to heavily modify or scrap their business plans altogether but the plan forced them to think about and hopefully plan for event that at the time seemed unlikely.

Ideas are also important but neither the idea or the plan holds a primary position...it all varies.

A great idea combined with a weak plan can be successful due to very strong market demand.

A weak idea with a great plan can also be successful.

And don't forget the other side of the triangle--->Action. Without action it really doesn't matter because you'll never know what was strong, weak, needs to be improved etc.

So to answer your question...it depends.

I agree with DaveMcF that implementation is key. Felix Dennis (very rich British man) has a chapter called "The fallacy of the great idea" in his book "How to Get Rich". He explains at length that ideas are worthless unless implemented well and profitably.

A great example of a bad idea done well is OrigamiBoulder.com .
The idea: Let's sell people scrunched up pieces of scrap paper.
The execution: Genius.
As the owner himself says :

"Idea" is dime a dozen and have no value. No scarcity of ideas on earth. Stupid idea well implemented more successful than best idea on earth never used.

yes buddy, it is a chicken and egg question really, and while i agree ideas may be abundant / you still need at least one to develop and implement for without that one seed your garden will not grow.

all low key here and what ever works for people is fine by me.

I think the plan most definitely wins out. But I like thinking that "Action" is the seed that gives you the plan.

You can listen to others teaching you, but you'll never really know until you try anything yourself.

However, you can have an idea without having a plan, but you can't have a plan without an idea.

A poorly executed plan can do servere damage, ie legal troubles or losing money. Whereas inaction is neutral.

And I disagree with this logic. If it succeeds, by definition it was a good idea and we can even say that a plan IS an idea.

Larry is there any reason why you dug up this 15 month old thread? :confused: