23 October 2002

Dead horse wisdom

By Jim Pinto

These are strange days. In industrial automation, as well as in other businesses on a broader front, many companies are downsizing and cutting back to stay afloat. Because most public companies are judged only by their ability to stay profitable, financial numbers are the driving force, and it is evident that the "bean counters" are in charge.

In engineering-based companies, the decisions that "come down" often seem to be irrational and totally off base. The inimitable and irrepressible Dick Morley is himself a "portal" for Internet humor and wisdom. He sent me this recently, and I thought you'd like it. Neither Morley nor I know the original author.

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

However, in modern business, because heavy investment factors are taken into consideration, other strategies are often tried with dead horses, including the following: 

• Buying a stronger whip 
• Changing riders 
• Threatening the horse with termination 
• Appointing a committee to study the horse 
• Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses 
• Lowering the standards so dead horses can be included 
• Reclassifying the dead horse as "living impaired"
• Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse 
• Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed 
• Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance 
• Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance
• Declaring that the dead horse carries lower overhead and therefore contributes more to the bottom line than some other horses 
• Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses 
• Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position 

The changes in the automation business-and, indeed, any business in today's market-make sense if you take a broader perspective. The moral of this story is: Don't be a dead horse, and don't try to ride one. Dismount, and find another horse to ride.

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is founder of San Diego-based Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com, or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com.