For most companies, cost cutting in a down economy means across-the-board slashing that "spreads the pain" of budget reductions across many departments. While that may sound like the best approach for getting critical results fast and for limiting political infighting, it is a mistake-one that will leave your company weaker, not just smaller. Instead, companies that need to reduce costs should treat the challenge as an opportunity to identify and reinforce their key capabilities, while divesting from those activities that do not truly reflect the business's strengths or long-term goals. This more strategic approach will make your company more resilient as tough times continue and more robust as recovery begins. In Cut Costs, Grow Stronger, an e-book published as part of the Harvard Business Press Memo to the CEO series, Booz & Company's Shumeet Banerji, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi provide executives with the tools they need to rapidly implement capabilities-driven cost reduction. First they demonstrate how to identify and clearly articulate your company's key capabilities-not just core competencies or skill sets, but those very few strengths that, in combination, define how your organization competes. You can then use this information to create your company's unique blueprint for effective and efficient cost reduction. The authors' detailed, step-by-step framework walks you through the process, which can be completed in as little as two or three months-it's something that you can do now. This practical guide to capabilities-driven cost-cutting is the tool executives need to confront the challenge of today's economy while strengthening the foundation for what will set their company apart in the future.

Focuses on rapid implementation of practical, real-world cost reduction solutions In today's economic climate, the need to cut costs can be the difference between success and failure. Cost Reduction and Optimization for Manufacturing and Industrial Companies covers all major cost reduction areas, providing easy to read examples and advice on steps to take. It provides the roadmap for implementing recommended actions with true and tried methods by taking a modern, all-inclusive look at manufacturing processes. Based on the author's cost reduction experience gained during 30 years of senior operations and consulting engagements with hundreds of organizations, this book includes easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement cost reduction concepts organized into five general areas --labor, material, design, process, and overhead. Each chapter: Dives into a cost reduction area and starts with the bottom line first by summarizing key points Provides proven tactics for cutting costs without a lot of extraneous data Follows a qualitative and design-oriented approach Emphasizes quick implementation and measurable cost reduction Identifies who in the organization should do the work Outlines risks and suggested risk mitigation actions Contains numerous tables, graphs, and photos to show the concepts described in the book Praise for Cost Reduction and Optimization for Manufacturing and Industrial Companies "In this introductory book, Berk not only takes a modern, all-inclusive look at manufacturing processes but also provides substantial coverage of engineering materials and production systems. It follows a more qualitative and design-oriented approach than other texts in the market, helping readers gain a better understanding of important concepts. They'll also discover how micro-economic conditions relate to the process variables in a given process as well as how to perform manufacturing science and quantitative engineering analysis of manufacturing processes." —Fred Silverman, Director Engineering of Hi-Shear Technology Corporation "Joe Berk has created a unique, practical and straightforward approach to cost reduction in manufacturing. This work provides valuable insights and concrete techniques, based on real-world experiences, to any manufacturing organization undertaking change to position itself to compete successfully in the global marketplace." —Joe Carleone, President and COO of American Pacific Corporation Check out author Joseph Berk's blog at http://manufacturingtraining.wordpress.com/

Discover the tools for knowing the costs your company should cut, without impacting its ability to deliver goods and services New from Steve Bragg, this book provides the tools for determining which costs a company should cut, without impacting its ability to deliver goods and services. It explains how to use throughput analysis in order to locate bottleneck operations in a company, which in turn dictates where capital investments should (and should not) be made. Delves into process analysis, to determine where excess resources are being used in a business process Describes the total cost of ownership, showing how a single purchasing decision actually snowballs into a variety of ancillary costs Shows how to create and use a spend management system to reduce procurement costs Shows how just-in-time systems can be used to eliminate inventory costs Cost Reduction Analysis: Tools and Strategies provides examples to show how much cost can potentially be eliminated to avoid drastic action later that can imperil your corporation's direction and future.

A practical approach to business transformation Fit for Growth* is a unique approach to business transformation that explicitly connects growth strategy with cost management and organization restructuring. Drawing on 70-plus years of strategy consulting experience and in-depth research, the experts at PwC’s Strategy& lay out a winning framework that helps CEOs and senior executives transform their organizations for sustainable, profitable growth. This approach gives structure to strategy while promoting lasting change. Examples from Strategy&’s hundreds of clients illustrate successful transformation on the ground, and illuminate how senior and middle managers are able to take ownership and even thrive during difficult periods of transition. Throughout the Fit for Growth process, the focus is on maintaining consistent high-value performance while enabling fundamental change. Strategy& has helped major clients around the globe achieve significant and sustained results with its research-backed approach to restructuring and cost reduction. This book provides practical guidance for leveraging that expertise to make the choices that allow companies to: Achieve growth while reducing costs Manage transformation and transition productively Create lasting competitive advantage Deliver reliable, high-value performance Sustainable success is founded on efficiency and high performance. Companies are always looking to do more with less, but their efforts often work against them in the long run. Total business transformation requires total buy-in, and it entails a series of decisions that must not be made lightly. The Fit for Growth approach provides a clear strategy and practical framework for growth-oriented change, with expert guidance on getting it right. *Fit for Growth is a registered service mark of PwC Strategy& Inc. in the United States

Reduce costs and keep all your customers. It is possible! We will show you how. You want your company to perform better. You want to reduce costs. You may even be desperate to reduce costs. But when you reduce costs, customers feel it, right? If you cut costs and lose customers, you will need to cut costs again. And again. Soon there will be nothing left to cut. And no customers. I call this the corporate death spiral. I have seen it happen. You may have seen it happen. You may be going through it. It does not have to be that way. It does not matter whether you need to cut costs to have money to invest, or simply because you have a profit crunch. No matter what your reason, it can be done without negative customer impact. Some cost reductions may even improve things for customers, making them more loyal. But how? Customer-centric Cost Reduction is a simple but revolutionary concept. I explain how to accurately identify things of little importance to customers. These are the cost reduction priorities. For most companies, there are lots of them. They fall into just a few categories, each of which needs to be addressed in specific ways. Imagine a world where you reduce costs faster than your competitors. You wind up with more money to invest in growth than your competitors could ever dream of. You can fund your new ideas. Your competitors can't. This book explains how to do it. It also explains how not to do it. Here is the most common way companies reduce costs (Don't do this) Your CEO (let's call him Bob) is worried about cost. The board wants the share price to go up. He wants a bigger bonus. So do the others on the leadership team. Bob thinks of himself as a fair person. He wants his cost reduction to be seen as fair by everyone. Easy! Here is what he writes to all of the employees: ..". and in the interest of fairness, I am asking every business and function in the company to reduce costs by 15%. It will be hard. We all need to work together to make it happen..." Let me be clear about this. Bob is an idiot! He makes no distinction between things that matter to customers and those that do not. This is how you start the corporate death spiral. This is how to go out of business. A real world example of how not to do it I remember walking along with the head of HP in EMEA. His phone rang. It was the CEO of a large Dutch multinational. He was not happy. They had outsourced their internal PC help desk to us. To reduce cost, we had eliminated Dutch as a supported language. Nobody had told the CEO. He had just phone the help desk. He got a nasty surprise. This did not turn out all that well for us. Enough said! Customer-centric Cost Reduction is both informative and entertaining. The methodology, anecdotes and examples are accompanied by my brother's memorable drawings that drive home many key points. I particularly like the one about the CEO announcing a company-wide travel freeze from the comfort of his corporate jet. (Don't do this either!) About the authors Maurice started his career with an Industrial Engineering degree and a stopwatch in his hand in a Wrangler clothing factory. He has implemented many major cost reduction initiatives for four multinationals right up to his time as VP of Customer Experience for HP Software. Peter is an artist, web designer, and Oxford-educated Doctor in Cognitive Psychology. The unusual combination of authors has produced a cost-reduction book that is unlike any other you will read. It combines current management thinking with behavioral economics theory and some striking illustrations. And in conclusion As we say in the book, "There are just 3.5 ways of reducing cost." You are just one or two clicks from finding out what they are. You know what to do now.

Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices provides financial manages with no-nonsense, balanced, and practical strategies that are being targeted and used nationwide for controlling costs by thousands of companies in areas such as human resources, compensation, benefits, purchasing, outsourcing, use of consultants, taxes, and exports. These best practices are based on the trenches experience, research, proprietary databases, and consultants from the Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA) and other leading experts in their fields. * Provides best practices and techniques for controlling costs within a company * New chapters focus on outsourcing costs, downsizing, consultants' costs, and business tax costs * Provides the latest strategies companies re using to control costs