Success Quote by Rosabeth Moss Kanter

In boardrooms and startup pitch decks, “A great idea is not enough” lands like a cold splash of water: the romance of inspiration doesn’t survive contact with execution. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, writing from the world of management and organizational change, is targeting a familiar corporate myth-the lone genius, the lightning-bolt concept, the belief that novelty automatically converts into value. Her line is blunt by design. It’s not anti-creativity; it’s anti-complacency.

The intent is managerial and moral at once. Kanter is warning leaders and innovators that ideas are cheap without systems that can carry them: buy-in, resources, incentives, timelines, political cover, and the unglamorous discipline of follow-through. The subtext is about power. In organizations, the best ideas often lose not because they’re flawed, but because they threaten existing arrangements or lack a sponsor with enough clout to protect them. “Not enough” quietly indicts cultures that fetishize brainstorming while starving implementation, celebrating visionaries while punishing the messy iteration required to make change real.

Context matters: Kanter’s career has been defined by studying why organizations resist change and how they can be designed to enable it. In that frame, the quote is less a motivational poster than a diagnostic tool. It asks a pointed question: if your idea “failed,” was it really the idea, or the absence of coalition, capability, and persistence? The line works because it strips away alibis. It moves responsibility from the sparkle of invention to the grind of making something happen.