Building Right vs. Building New

I’m a builder. I’ve always enjoyed getting in on the ground floor of a project and building it up into something that solves a problem and is truly impactful. That’s why I first came to Deloitte — because it has a culture that celebrates building. I’ve gotten the opportunity to build a number of impactful programs during my time here, from starting our EHR practice from scratch to helping create our newest ConvergeHEALTH offering.  

However, I believe there’s a big difference between building something new and building something right. The former is something that didn’t exist before you built it. The latter is something that works, solves a real problem, stands the test of time, and lays a foundation for future growth and creation. 

Too many people think success looks like building something – anything – new in order to make their mark. But just because you build something doesn’t mean it will work, and a world that prioritizes building new without building right will end up crowded, complicated – and with the same old problems.

How do you avoid falling into this trap? There are two keys to building something right:

1.     Start with smart strategy

2.     Don’t overcomplicate the execution

Start with Smart Strategy

The goal of building something isn’t just to have something new; it’s to solve a problem or make something better. To make that tangible difference, you must think strategically about the need and situation. What’s the problem we’re really trying to address?

There’s a tendency in many areas of business to get caught up in what’s possible. But just because technology allows us to do something we couldn’t before doesn’t mean we should automatically do it. Without the right strategy, you could create something very cool and exciting but that’s never used because it doesn’t address a real problem. I see this repeatedly in the world of analytics and reporting: collecting data point upon data point, looking for that accidental breakthrough that often may not occur if the real business issue is not the focal point. And I can’t think of anything worse than building reams of reports just to sit on a shelf!

I often see leaders fail to think through all possible outcomes. They see the current problem and environment, and they set out to build a program or initiative to address it. But environments evolve constantly, and if you don’t consider multiple outcomes as part of your strategic planning, you could build something that becomes obsolete as soon as the environment has shifted.

I believe in creating horizon 1 solutions with an eye for the horizon 2 implications. Even if the next horizon isn’t completely understood, the actual dialogue around the art of the possible enriches your program’s effectiveness. 

Don’t Overcomplicate the Execution

Another roadblock to building something right? Overcomplicating things. In the corporate world, great strategies can often fail when too many people get involved, there is a lot of bureaucracy, and there are too many hoops to jump through.

Building new capabilities requires the ability to break the component parts down so that you can effectively execute. Leaders need to not get in their own way by overcomplicating the approach – they should have a pragmatic execution plan and always keep monitoring and measuring.

Collaboration is key to creation, but leaders must be able to act decisively to move a project forward without getting caught up in the back-and-forth that plagues many companies. By circling around the issue, you risk diluting the smart strategy you set at the beginning – and you end up with a weaker final product.

How it Comes to Life

We put both of these imperatives into practice when building our industry cloud and AI capabilities. When we set out to build these in 2020, we started by taking a step back to think through the multiple market offerings we were considering and getting clarity on the client issues these tools would be solving. Then, and only then, could we build to the right specifications.

Once we had those specifications in place, we turned to execution. We understand that most clients are in different stages of their cloud and AI strategy, so we created digiprints – individualized digital roadmaps for each of our clients. The digiprints help us meet the client where they are and chart out a specific journey for how we can move forward to ensure next steps and decision-making responsibilities are clear. Together, this strategic lens and execution-focused approach allowed us to build this offering out into something that makes a real impact for clients.

Leaders should aspire to do big things, solve major problems and create programs that make the world better. To do so, they shouldn’t dive straight into building something for the sake of building it. Instead, they should start with a strong, smart strategy to ensure the initiative meets a real need, and then build with straightforward execution to ensure that strategy doesn’t get overcomplicated.

The more leaders keep these two things in mind, the more we’ll end up with programs, projects and initiatives that are built right – and the more we’ll be able to make a real impact on the world around us.