Planning starts with the objectives of the business. In each area of objectives, the question needs to be asked, “What do we have to do now to attain our objectives tomorrow?” The first thing to do to attain tomorrow is to slough off yesterday. Most plans concern themselves only with the new and additional things that have to be done—new products, new processes, new markets, and so on. But the key to doing something different tomorrow is getting rid of the no-longer-productive, the obsolescent, and the obsolete. The first step in planning is to ask of any activity, any product, any process or market, “If we were not committed to this today, would we go into it?” If the answer is no, one says, “How can we get out—fast?”
Systematic sloughing off of yesterday is a plan by itself—and adequate in many businesses. It will force thinking and action. It will make available people and money for new things. It will create the willingness to act. The plan that provides only for doing additional and new things without provision for sloughing off old and tired ones is unlikely to have results. It will remain plan and never become reality. Yet getting rid of yesterday is the decision that most long-range plans in business (and even more in government) never tackle—which may be the main reason for their futility.
Peter Drucker, Management Rev Ed, HarperCollins