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Our Perspective

Most people would agree that it is best when beginning a journey to know the destination. This seems almost too obvious to mention, but we've seen a great many businesses begin the journey towards a more effective enterprise only to lose their way in a tangle of current state analysis and a fuzzily defined picture of the desired end state.

The steps defined by conventional wisdom seem logical:

  1. Thoroughly analyze and understand current state
  2. Define the desired future state based on strategic business goals and business requirements
  3. Map a path from the former to the latter

There is a trap, however, in this common approach: Since no future state has been defined when you begin, it is impossible to know what aspects of the current state are most important. Because of this, every facet of current state tends to be analyzed and defined to the same level of detail. This always takes quite a long time, and is complicated by the fact that the realities of modern business force frequent adjustments to the current state. Many businesses carry out exhaustive current state analyses only to find that much of their work is outdated by the time it is completed. More than a few businesses never get to future state definition because these ongoing tactical changes require continuous re-evaluation of the “state of the union”.

We advocate a more dynamic and focused approach. There are two simple questions that are the basis for this approach. The first one is this:

How much do you really have to know about where you are in order to describe where you want to be?

As it turns out, the answer is “Not very much.” If, for example, you were go to an online map service to get directions from your house to a specific destination, you wouldn't have to describe your house, yard, or driveway in detail. All you would need to provide would be your address. The GPS appliance in your car doesn’t even need that; once it connects to the positioning system and establishes latitude and longitude, it just needs to be given a destination. So what is it that your business needs to know in order to define an appropriate future state? In many cases, the most important things to know come from discussions around the answer to the second question, which is:

Why don’t you want to stay where you are?

This question elicits pain points—the reasons the business needs to make changes. For two important reasons, an understanding of areas of significant pain helps establish focus in current state analysis:

  1. These are the areas that will undergo the highest levels of change in the move to future state. The better these areas are understood (as well as the pain associated with them), the better will be the future state solution.
  2. They will point to the most critical gaps in processes, systems, and supporting infrastructure. This enables enterprise, process, and solution architects to understand what key quality attributes the future state system should exhibit.

So, while conventional wisdom again contends that you must understand your current state in excruciating detail before you you can make an informed decision about where you should take your business, our contention is that your current state really has very little to do with your vision for the future of your business. Clarity of vision is the true enabler of change, the most effective accelerator of strategic progress, and the best insurance against failure.