The theory propounded by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in the beginning of 1980s. It explains with the following example in Wikipedia.

Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.
Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

By being based on this theory, the authorities that predict much bigger problems can be solved by giving priority to the smallest problems and violations of rule in some big cities as New York provided crime ratioes reduced about zero level within next 20 years.

Broken windows theory can also constitute solution for many big problems at your business life. In your own business or in the company you work, to solve the problems seem unimportant fastly prevents to be repeated failure like them and become bigger problems supported by those small problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows