[MRM]

I think the word he was looking for would be "obective" more than insensitive. By that I mean that a senior manager has to objectively evaluate every person, business unit, product, etc. that is his responsibility and get rid of it if it is no longer useful, no matter how unpleasant the parting will be. I think that's what he meant by being insensitive, that you can't let doing hard things get to you.

The more experience I have any the more I realize this is the key to successful management and business dealings in general. You have to be completely objective in evaluating an employee's performance, a business unit's ability to be profitable, every product line, customer, or business oportunity that presents itself. And then you have to be completely ruthless about following the objective truth of the situation, and if that means doing something that's hard, you have to do it. Because if you don't, the organization will not survive and prosper, and then you'll all be out of jobs.