Since April Fool’s Day, when Aubrey McClendon was excised (by way of retirement) from the company he founded in 1989, Chesapeake Energy Corp. has been selling itself out of debt.

But it’s been moving forward, too. And any lingering presence of the McClendon era is being cast out.

On the evening of August 13, Chesapeake showed four executives the door: chief operating officer and former interim chief executive Steve Dixon; Jeff Fisher, executive vice president of production; Steve Miller, senior vice president of drilling; and Martha Burger, the senior vice president of human resources.

The changes come as Doug Lawler, president and chief executive since June, tightens his grip on the company he’s been entrusted to lead into the future.

In a note to employees, Lawler said this reorganization would make Chesapeake more “‘competitive and focused,’” said David Tameron, senior analyst with Wells Fargo Securities, in a report.

“Not only will their replacements be ‘Doug’s guys,’ but these moves also send a strong signal to the entire employee base, and to Wall Street, that changes are coming,” Tameron said.

Welcome to culture change. The best place to start was replacing veteran executives who had been with the company for many years, Tameron wrote. “Our take on this is the Doug Lawler era has begun.”

In fact, just days before, a Barclays analyst lauded the company for its focus on capital discipline. The company has been showing signs it is getting out of its funk, with strong growth and efficiency gains across its core liquids plays. That led to a bump in fiscal-year 2013 production guidance and lower projected capital spending.

Lawler’s team also announced a greater focus on capital allocation decisions, aimed at improving balance-sheet adjusted production and cash-flow growth.

The payoff is a revised capital budget for drilling and completion activities that fell to $5.7- to $6 billion from $5.75- to $6.25 billion. Chesapeake also expects to operate an average of 64 rigs in the second half of 2013 compared with 81 to start the year. Well completions will fall 20% in the second half. Barclays noted the company still has a $1.8-billion funding gap this year.

While the decreases were relatively small, they are symbolic of management’s new business strategy of locking down capital allocation, balancing cash flow and reducing debt, said Jeffrey W. Robertson, a Barclays’ analyst.

Chesapeake is also taking its vast resource potential and turning it into production and cash, which means its eyes are focused on the highest-return projects it owns, Robertson said.

Still, challenges dog the once mighty Chesapeake. The company’s plan to unload $4- to $7 billion worth of noncore assets continues. In the sold column, as of August, were more than $3.7 billion in assets. But the great purge raises questions.

On the one hand, Chesapeake appears to have stabilized, and a shift to full harvest mode could mean better efficiencies and higher margins.

“On the bear side, the most often-cited argument is that after asset sales, what is left? Are core Eagle Ford and Marcellus positions enough to carry the shares, and how big a chance do investors have to take on the Utica delivering?” Tameron said.

To kick off August, Chesapeake sold off its gas gathering and processing assets in the Mississippi Lime, along with 540,000 net acres in the play’s core, for $300 million cash. It also sold its 10% stake in Gastar, its investment in Clean Energy Fuels and interest in a trucking company.

Its bigger score occurred in July, when it reaped $1 billion for 55,000 net Eagle Ford acres and another 9,600 in the Haynesville that were largely nonoperative.

Lawler is keenly aware of the concerns.

During the second-quarter earnings call, he said the company is at a “key juncture in its history and we have a laser focus on positioning the company to execute more competitively.” Lawler said there are “many areas where I see opportunity and room for improvement.”

He said that over a six-week period he had launched a comprehensive review of the assets. Lawler wants a path to becoming a more focused and efficient E&P company. Critical to that is balancing capital expenditures with cash flow.

Lawler is apparently already laser-like focused. On August 1 he said part of his planning included “working with the senior management team to determine our best path forward.”

Now we know how that turned out.

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