AN IDEA IS AFTER ALL AN IDEA!!!

Flash back: A classroom scene a year ago in one of the most beautiful management schools in Bangalore. Five minutes prior to a session on Integrated Marketing Communications. Two friends (group mates too) are working on an assignment - creating an ad for a product. The idea was the boy’s and the girl has contributed towards its implementation. In a lighter sense they start arguing as to who has contributed more and whose respective contribution was more important than the other. The girl is in favor of importance of idea implementation and the boy can be seen prophesying about great ideas. They have a long series exchange of words to prove each other’s point but soon it is ceased due to the entry of their professor into the class. During the attendance the boy takes out a paper which read ‘Brand Equity’ and starts flipping through its pages. He is smiling at the left corner of the second page of the paper. Curious, the girl peeps into the paper and her eyes fall on the article on a debate about the importance of Idea and its implementation, the article inclines towards the importance of implementing an idea. The girl jumps with joy as her point was proved by the article. Laughing and teasing each other they break for lunch and move out of the class room, towards the food court.

Today when I have completed my course; I sit back with nostalgia and a series of events pass by in my mind. The girl in the above incident was me and my friend here was ‘Ravi’. This incident captured my attention and I started evaluating the topic of argument again.

No doubt ideas are important be it running a government, cooking, fashion, products, poetry or anything else. The world sustains on ideas, companies sustain on newer ideas hence ideas are something which keeps the world moving. But an idea just remains an abstract thought if there are no resources, be it financial, material or human. Right execution of the idea gives an identity to the abstract thought and concrete evidence is created for the people to appreciate the idea.

But it’s a common scene where people categorize ideas into great, mediocre and poor. A film fails to work on the box office and the blame directly goes to bad idea conception. Now what makes an idea great, mediocre or poor? – It’s the right implementation. Anything if implemented well is always applauded.

An idea can never be great or poor. An idea is an idea after all, it’s categorized into great or poor based on its feasibility, relevance in that particular society or industry, and the resources for its implementation.

Take for instance, Levi’s ventured into executive wear but retained the brand name and it failed, as the audience/consumers had prior associations with the brand Levi’s as ‘rugged’ which went exactly opposite the executive attitude. Venturing into executive segment was an idea but was poorly implemented hence it was regarded as a bad one. If they had come with another brand name and had a different branding strategy then it would be a great idea.

Hence implementation makes an idea poor or great because an idea is after all an idea!
-Summu Saif