>>
>>First observation, your client needs to make a decision not for the next 5 years, but for the 20 next years, and for this horizon you need to consider how the market will evolve at large, not just what is cool and hype today. In 2005, Flash and VBscript were leading, and in the end Javascript won.
>>
>
>Hmmm...…..
>
>With so many places needing to be agile in order to both survive and thrive, the notion of a 20 year plan is probably going to be as fruitful as the initiative for a paperless bathroom :)
>
>In 20 years, you might have to do several major pivots - acquisitions, changes in process due to any specific industry regulations for your business, the loss of a key customer (or the interest in acquiring a new customer that would mean major changes at your end)
>
>The best thing to plan for in 20 years is to be progressively more adaptive to change.
>
>My 20 year plan? Not to die. :)


For sure.
Anyone who had made a 20 year plan before the IBM PC hit the market would have shredded it a few years later.
Ditto with the Worldwide web.
I'm in the processing of replacing an accounting system I sold a client 15 years ago.
Given the current rate of change if he gets 15 years out the new one, it will be miraculous.

What this thread misses, though, is that WHO does things is more important than WHAT they do.

The great Ben Hogan, when asked what type of golf clubs he preferred, famously replied:
"The mechanic is more important than the tools."