If the best management minds agree on anything, it is the importance of corporate focus. Peter Drucker repeatedly argued that deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.

The chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, once said that “we believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can focus on the few.” Tom Peters, who recently announced his retirement from writing after decades searching for excellence, advised companies to “stick to their knitting”.

Bloomberg Opinion