---
id: "concept-paving-the-cow-paths"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["§ Incumbents Must Rethink Their Architecture"]
tags: ["digital-transformation", "process-engineering", "technical-debt"]
related: ["action-rearchitect-workflows", "claim-incumbent-architecture-mismatch", "entity-michael-hammer", "quote-stop-paving-cow-paths"]
definition: "The counterproductive practice of applying new technology to automate outdated, inefficient processes rather than fundamentally redesigning the workflows first."
enrichment_verdict: "Strongly supported — canonical to business process reengineering and now echoed in agentic-AI best practice (McKinsey, IBM)."
sources: ["futures"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-futures"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-new-24-agentic-ai-supercharges-startups"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/07/how-agentic-ai-supercharges-startups-and-threatens-incumbents"
sourceTitle: "How Agentic AI Supercharges Startups and Threatens Incumbents"
---
# Paving the Cow Paths

Originally coined by [[entity-michael-hammer]] in 1990, **paving the cow paths** names the critical mistake of taking outdated, inefficient, broken manual processes and simply digitizing or automating them.

In the context of agentic AI, dropping an intelligent system into a messy workflow — full of unnecessary steps and brittle integrations — simply reproduces those flaws *at higher speed*. The imperative: organizations must **obliterate and re-architect** their workflows before applying automation. See the founding quote [[quote-stop-paving-cow-paths]] and the corresponding action [[action-rearchitect-workflows]]. This concept is the practical crux of [[claim-incumbent-architecture-mismatch]] and presumes familiarity with [[prereq-technical-debt-d2]].

**Enrichment note.** The phrase is canonically attributed to Michael Hammer and the business process reengineering (BPR) movement. McKinsey's agentic-AI guidance ('highest value comes from reimagining entire workflows') and IBM's stance ('flexibility without reliability is risk') both echo it. *Verdict: Strongly supported.*


## Related across articles
- [[action-rearchitect-workflows]]
- [[contrarian-corporate-planning]]