Short term focus management techniques don't work long term for the companies involved. But that doesn't worry execs who know they'll be long gone, cash in hand, before the chooks come home to roost.
Places that use the technique Sunfish mentioned (eg wrt 737s) end up with their best, most talented (aka employable) workers leaving when the writing's on the wall, and being left with the also-rans. Then, of course, when they realise they need someone to do the work again, they've got to spend way more than if they hadn't hatched their bird-brained plan in the first place...