“This is working so well. Let’s do away with it.”

That is a message I hear all too often. In one guise or another. You probably hear it too.

I hear it so often I wonder if a self-destruct gene is a major ingredient in humanity’s make up.

Here’s an example of the gene in action. A performing arts group near me ran a successful gala every year. It made a lot of money for them. More money than any of their other events. It won friends galore. Subscribers and others called it the best event of the season.

The board decided to end it. It seems they wanted “something new.” That “something new” became a disaster.

Advertising people will regale you with stories of clients who kill their succesful ad campaigns. All their research tells them their campaigns are doing better than expected. Their people in the field tell them the same. Sales figures tell them the same. Yet the companies stop them.

Years ago I ran the marketing of a small manufacturer. I constantly had to fight skirmishes with those in the firm who wanted to kill our most successful campaigns.

Large companies face the same problems. The man who was president of ABC Radio confirmed this with me. ABC ran four Paul Harvey programs. His morning news. His mid-day report. His Saturday special report. And his “Rest of the Story” program.

These were the four most popular programs in all of radio. They made tons of money for the network. Yet when contract time came around this president usually faced a mutiny amongst his news management. They wanted to kill Harvey’s programs. The four most listened-to programs in the country.

The president told me he had to go to the chairman each time to have the contract renewed.

We see the gene at work on large projects.

Currently the Russians are destroying the success of their oil and gas industries. They won’t kill the industries. But they will harm them. So reports Leon Aron in The American Magazine.