You get the impression that maximize means to take it to the last drop, to use it till it drops, to go over the field again and again and again till every last sheaf has been harvested.
And that all this is to be encouraged. You are maximizing efficiency. You used up the asset until it dropped dead.
Maximize.
But is this in your own interest? Or any one else's for that matter.
The idea for looking at the goodness or lack thereof of this maximization first occurred to me from Drucker when he admonished the nonsense that was profit maximization be replaced with profit optimization where optimization means attaining a profit on the best possible sustainable terms and maximising means clearing everything regardless of use or need or future prospects.
This idea bears some thinking about has it is a long the lines of sustainable profitability of the clients your law firm has. If you have decided you want a long term repeat business relationship then you begin to see insider the amount of revenue you extract and the emotional capital you use up in doing it.
My current view is do you have to squeeze the last drop of productivity and efficiency from the asset so that when you are done all that is left is for the asset to be consigned to the junk heap? How about profits? Do you seek to get whatever the market can bear and as much as your firm can get away with?
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