Work on What Has Been Spoiled (Decay) in Business

Something in the business has quietly rotted — a broken process papered over, a founding assumption gone stale, a culture problem breeding in the unexamined corners. This hexagram is the turnaround order, and its method is exact. Before the start: understand how the decay actually arose (much of it is inherited — the practices installed early and never questioned, "how we've always done it"). The crossing of the great water: decisive, wholehearted repair, not tinkering at the edges. After the start: vigilance, because spoilage returns by the road it came. Be rigorous with the broken systems and patient with the people holding them in place — line 2's warning is that what looks like stubborn resistance is usually old fear. Line 1's inherited decay takes courage to break, for it wears the authority of the founders — yet correcting it redeems the very source.

The repair may be to the venture's own foundations before it scales. The inherited blueprint — the industry's tired conventions, the founder's own bad habits from the last company, the model copied because it's familiar — is the spoiled thing to work on now. This is valuable timing: decay corrected before growth doesn't get baked into everything the venture builds. Name the fault (three days of consideration), break with it deliberately (the crossing), and watch for its return in an attractive new form (three days of care). Line 6's dignity also applies: stepping back from the immediate scramble to work on what's timeless — the venture's genuine long-term purpose rather than the next funded gimmick — is legitimate, even necessary, work.