ABSTRACT
The concept of zero-based organizing begins where zero-based budgeting does. In theory, zero-based budgeters could have done the same with an "idealized budget" for allowing four years of work toward it. If an "ideal budget" was created, the sad conclusion frequently was, "That's where we would like to go all right, but you just can't get there from here". Russell Ackoff argues in the context of creating a corporate strategy, the key question is how do we get from there to here. The chapter figures out how to move from that future structure back to the present. In the past three years more than a dozen major United States of America corporations have in whole or in part begun such a zero-based approach to restructuring. Restructuring requires not only the careful thought suggested by zero-based organizing but commitments as well to creating planning, decision-making, measurement, reward, and penalty procedures that are appropriate to the restructured organization.
