Horse Harness

The lessons of the new economy hold that when you discover that you are riding a
dead horse, the best strategy is to get off and rapidly find a new mount. However, in
traditional business, it is often difficult to let go of your investment in dead horses,
which leads you to try other strategies to breach life into hopeless investments, such
as:

* Change riders

* Buy a stronger whip

* Harness several dead horses together for increased speed

* Emulate the best practices of companies riding dead horses

* Outsource the ridership of the horse

* Affirm, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse.”

* Change the requirements, declaring, “This horse is not dead.”

* Perform a cost analysis to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.

* Promote the dead horse to a management position.

* Have the solicitors bring suit against the horse manufacturer.

* Put out a news release that, in the unlikely event the horse is dead, it was dead before it came to the company.

Dan Roberts is a well known figure in the European electronic supplies and peripheral products industries. As a consultant to it since 1987 he opened up distribution channels and provided strategic guidance to companies such as Kodak, Verbatim, Memorex, EMC2 ICI Imagedata , Jetfill, ATI, Majestic International and various office products, remanufacturing and computer leasing companies.

Between 1996 and 2005 he suspended his consulting activities to direct Europe’s largest master distributor of compatible inkjet cartridges – The Container Club. Prior to 1987 he was Director of Product Planning for Unisys, and Director of Planning for the international operations of Memorex. In all, he has over 30 years experience in aftermarket distribution. Visit Our Web Site www.saddleonline.com