Systematic Abandonment

Definition

Just as important as deciding what new and different things to do is the "planned, systematic abandonment of the old that no longer fits the purpose and mission of the business, no longer conveys satisfaction to the customer... no longer makes a superior contribution." Without a deliberate abandonment process, an organization spends its energy "defending yesterday" and has no resources left to exploit today or build tomorrow.

In the Book

Chapter 3 poses "What should our business be?" as a question distinct from "what will our business be?" (adaptation to anticipated change) and answers that answering it requires systematically auditing every existing product, service, process, market, and distribution channel by asking whether it still gives value to the customer and is likely to keep doing so — and, if not, how to abandon it or at least stop feeding it further resources. Drucker extends the same logic to public policy in the discussion of "sunset laws" — statutes that lapse automatically unless reenacted — noting they have largely failed because there are no objective criteria for when an agency becomes dysfunctional and no organized abandonment process even once dysfunction is agreed on. Chapter 20 (Principles of Innovation) treats this as a discipline rather than a one-time housecleaning: the search for what to abandon has to be organized and done on a regular, systematic basis, parallel to and as demanding as the search for new opportunity.

Why It Matters

This names the asymmetry between starting and stopping: organizations have routines for approving new initiatives but almost never for terminating old ones, so obsolete commitments accumulate by default rather than by decision. It applies to any system that only has entry gates and no exit gates — product portfolios, government programs, personal commitments, even one's own beliefs — and gives a concrete test (does it still fit the purpose, and would we start it today knowing what we know now?) rather than leaving abandonment to crisis or attrition.