Some call it Greenfield, NewCo, or De novo, but whatever the term, it represents a strategy for companies seeking innovation, seismic shifts, or major transformation by throwing out the old and starting fresh. In my view, this is often the only way to achieve this. I’ve been advising customers, partners, and anyone who would listen for years to take this approach to major change or transformation.
Let’s acknowledge that it’s a lot easier said than done. Through personal experience and working with others, I’ve gained the practical know-how to guide companies through it. Having done it multiple times, I understand both the challenges and the best approaches to respectfully wind down the old with minimal disruption, while building the new and growing it to maturity until it’s ready to replace the old.
Going Greenfield can apply to anything from individual divisions or product lines to a full company transformation. And this isn’t just a technology approach. It goes much deeper.
In agile methodology, “refactoring” (I’ll share free advice on this topic separately) is a way to avoid restarting by regularly updating technology, organization, and mindset. But for 99% of us, it’s too late. We didn’t refactor consistently, so starting over becomes the only option.
I had the opportunity to work with an amazing person - Judith Henderson, then CIO of Farmers Insurance. She coined the phrase “untangling the Christmas tree lights.” After storing a string of lights for a year, they’re often tangled and damaged, making it easier to buy new lights than fix the old ones. This is exactly what happens to technology systems, organizational structures, and business processes: they become so complex and fragile that they block innovation. At that point, it’s usually more effective to start fresh than try to salvage outdated systems.
Many companies have faced existential threats by trying to salvage outdated models or technology. BlackBerry, Blockbuster, Polaroid, and Sears all clung to legacy systems and incremental improvements, rather than making bold, forward-thinking changes. As a result, they were overtaken by competitors:
- BlackBerry: Preserved its physical keyboard and OS while competitors embraced app-centric smartphones, leading to its downfall.
- Blockbuster: Focused on video rentals while Netflix revolutionized streaming, causing its collapse.
- Polaroid: Stuck with film instead of going digital, leading to its bankruptcy in 2001.
- Sears: Failed to adapt to e-commerce and relied too long on physical stores, going bankrupt in 2018.
Other notable examples include Kodak, MySpace, Nokia, and Yahoo.
It takes real courage for a company to abandon what made it successful and start fresh to stay competitive. Companies like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft recognized that clinging to old models would limit future growth, so they made bold moves to innovate, transforming their businesses in the process. In some cases, they realized they were too large to fully reinvent themselves alone, so they acquired startups driving innovation and used those acquisitions to replace or enhance their legacy systems.
As John Lennon said, “It’s time to spread our wings and fly… It’ll be just like starting over.”
So, my free advice is:
Start over (and call us to help you convince others it’s both necessary and possible as well as to give you some tips on how to practically do it).