I was emptying my refrigerator as I was thinking about a title for this post, but this post really has to do with something that I’ve encountered in certain consulting environments.
To put things in perspective, a few years ago I was working on a consulting project related to a launch of a new business within a large multinational company – a company that is so large that it had the Russian doll (these are the wooden dolls where you unscrew one and then there is another one inside, perhaps seven nested within one another) equivalent in organizational structures, e.g., three levels of CEOs. The company had a long history with legacy organizations and people and wanted to introduce new products in an entrepreneurial-like setting within the larger organization.
In an informal setting, our team presented some options in terms of potential product line scopes, and the options ranged from simple to complex. At this point, one of the other consultants to the company, an ex-CXO at Booz Allen Hamilton and a person I admire quite a bit, raised a point that he did not think that it would be wise for the client to undertake one variation of the product line incarnations, even though the financials looked much more attractive than the others. This was sage advice in my mind. He did not want the client to get caught up in a business that could potentially "take on a life of its own". An organization that had not yet proved whether it could walk let alone run in a new entrepreneurial market should be discouraged from pursuing the sexiest product line model of the lot.
Another version of things taking on a life of its own … I can think of at least a few cases where a management consulting firm introduced a methodology for running a certain aspect of the business only to find later that the client readapted the methodologies for other purposes (e.g., other business lines, other functions). In concept, this is great as the company should get mileage out of what had been produced elsewhere. All said, some organizations can forget the original premises and goals of the process and/or methodologies installed. The steps and processes aren’t forgotten though. They are followed to the letter. With the goals and premises long forgotten, the organization may be executing a bunch of processes and bureaucracy while accomplishing close to nothing results-wise.
None of this is to say that the client is stupid. I’m not discouraging the use of consultants either. I’m just saying that things can take on a life of their own in business like things do in one’s refrigerator. It’s a special sauce that you have to watch out for in business.