The only difference between ideas and execution is scale. When people say execution is more important than ideas what they're really saying is that the small-scale ideas are more valuable than large-scale ideas. Having a bunch of really good small ideas for how to implement something successfully tends to be more important than having an insprining idea about what the thing is and how it fits into the arc of human history.
For example, "a new form of higher education that is cheap and accessible to everyone" is a large-scale, low-value idea. But specific ideas about, say, how to incentivise retired professionals to mentor students can be really valuable. I think this is reflected in the fact that startups love to talk about their big ideas but very tight lipped about their tactics. Tactics are still ideas, just on a small scale.
When people talk about execution being what's most important they aren't talking about hard work - that's a given. They're talking about all the small-scale tactical ideas that companies have to wrestle with every day. Startups that failed due to poor execution of a good idea typically worked just as hard and put just much hustle into everything as their more successful competitors. But they followed a lot of bad small ideas that added up to a bad overall outcome.
For example, "a new form of higher education that is cheap and accessible to everyone" is a large-scale, low-value idea. But specific ideas about, say, how to incentivise retired professionals to mentor students can be really valuable. I think this is reflected in the fact that startups love to talk about their big ideas but very tight lipped about their tactics. Tactics are still ideas, just on a small scale.
When people talk about execution being what's most important they aren't talking about hard work - that's a given. They're talking about all the small-scale tactical ideas that companies have to wrestle with every day. Startups that failed due to poor execution of a good idea typically worked just as hard and put just much hustle into everything as their more successful competitors. But they followed a lot of bad small ideas that added up to a bad overall outcome.