The Daily Drucker: January 5 - Abandonment

There is nothing as difficult and as expensive, but nothing as futile, as trying to keep a corpse from stinking

Effective executives know that they have to get many things dome effectively.  Therefore, they concentrate.  And the first rule for the concentration of the executive efforts is to slough off the past that has ceased to be productive.  The first-class resources, especially those scares resources of the human strength, are immediately pulled out and put to work on the opportunities of tomorrow.  If leaders are unable to slough off yesterday, to abandon yesterday, they simply will not be able to create tomorrow.

Without systematic and purposeful abandonment, an organisation will be overtaken by events.  It will squander its best resources on things it should have never been doing or should no longer do.  As a result, it will lack the resources, especially capable people, needed to exploit the opportunities that arise.  Far too few businesses are willing to slough off yesterday, and as a result, far too few have resources available for tomorrow.

ACTION POINT: Stop squandering resources on obsolete businesses and free up your capable people to take advantage of new opportunities.

Quoted from The Daily Drucker, Page 7