I’m being pitched a lot at the moment. Considering the world today and where it was six months ago, this is hardly a surprise. There are a lot of people that want to help me transform and “go Digital”.
I read each pitch, I can always learn from someone else, but I’m often hit that the person pitching me doesn’t show master of the domain that they want to transform.
Let me explain…
This is an early Picasso. Don’t believe me? Look here…
He can obviously paint, and paint well. He’s mastered the old way of doing things, look at the way the material falls. Once he was a master of the old, he transformed to the new.
Same works for engineering. Adrian Newey is a genius, and someone I greatly admire for his ability to constantly optimise and move forward. Each years the cars improve and each there is always something that nobody else has seen.
I believe that a lot of this is because he was forced to master the basics in IndyCar. Race after race of mastering the basics with strict limits. He mastered the old a long time ago and I’m sure that has stayed with him during his whole career.
So when the pitch arrives, what am I looking for?
Mastery of the existing before telling me what the new will look like.