The cart before the horse

“We need a digital strategy to map out our roadmap to success”

“We’ve got to use <insert Content Management System / Product> because we’ve paid for licences for it”.

No you don’t.

You need to think about the what, then just get going on the how.

To overuse the metaphor, you need to stop thinking you need a horse and a cart.  Don’t spend your time  designing the cart, or worse still putting it in front of the horse.  You’ll never get anywhere. Your horse will be perfectly good to get you started on the journey.  If it is an old nag you won’t have invested much time and effort on designing a cart that’s not fit for the horse.  And if it’s a thoroughbred you can build a cart that is fit for the journey when you need it.  And that roadmap? What use is it in uncharted territory?

2 Comments

  1. Conor Neill · Thursday, 5 May, 2011

    Management = doing the things effectively;
    Leadership = doing the right things.

  2. Prashant Gandhi · Friday, 13 May, 2011

    Hmm..Spilt milk theory at work again.

    People anchor on the costs that they have already incurred and dont realise that the decisions they need to make have to be independent of it. Seperating out is hard for most of us – for example, finishing off a plate of food just because you have ordered it or wearing a piece of clothing just because good money was spent on it even if it is unflattering.

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