Strategy for Large Corporations – You just can’t beat a dead horse!

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed down from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

(Many thanks to Bob Marsh and Ben Trainer for passing this along- Russ)

In the Large Corporations, however, a whole range of far more advanced strategies is often employed, such as:

1. Change riders.

2. Buy a stronger whip.

3. Do nothing: "This is the way we have always ridden dead horses".

4. Visit other plants to see how they ride dead horses.

5. Perform a productivity study to see if lighter riders can improve a dead horse’s performance.

6. Hire a contractor to ride the dead horse.

7. Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase speed.

8. Provide additional funding and/or training in an attempt to increase the dead horse’s performance.

9. Appoint a committee to study the horse and assess just how dead it actually is.

10. Re-classify the dead horse as "living-impaired".

11. Develop a Strategic Plan for the management of dead horses.

12. Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses.

13. Modify existing standards to include dead horses.

14. Declare that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line than many other horses.

15. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

You just can’t beat a dead horse!