Wisdom developed for the corporate world

The Dakota Indians of North America passed on this piece of wisdom from generation by word of mouth: “If you are riding a dead horse the best thing to do is dismount”.

However, in the corporate world today, because of the heavy investment factor other things need to be tried:

• Buy a stronger whip.
• Change riders.
• Threaten the horse with termination.
• Appoint a committee to study the horse.
• Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
• Lower the standards so dead horses can be included.
• Appoint an intervention team to reanimate the horse.
• Create a training session to increase the riders load share.
• Reclassify the horse as `living impaired’.
• Change the form so it reads “This horse is not dead”.
• Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
• Harness several dead horses together for increased speed and efficiency.
• Donate the dead horse to a recognised charity therefore deducting its full original cost.
• Provide additional funding to increase horse’s performance.
• Carry out a time management study to see if lighter riders would improve productivity.
• Purchase an after market product that makes dead horses run faster.
• Declare the dead horse has lower overheads and is therefore more cost effective.
• Form a quality focus group to find profitable uses for dead horses.
• Rewrite the performance requirements for horses.
• And, finally if all else fails, promote the dead horse into a supervisory (management) position.

Kevin Harrington

I’m a UK-based B2B marketing consultant, specialising in strategic advice for SME business owners. I bring extensive hands-on expertise to every client engagement. Senior leadership roles across technology, media, payments, and publishing have shaped my practical approach. Highlights include serving as Chief Marketing Officer at The Panoply plc (now TPXimpact), Chief Commercial Officer at Tungsten Network, and Global Marketing Director at BBC Worldwide. Over the years, I’ve guided numerous SMEs through transformation and value creation. Helping businesses evolve and thrive is a genuine passion. Practical marketing insights and succession planning strategies are at the heart of what I do, as I believe growing a business’s asset value should be a rewarding and positive journey for every entrepreneur.

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