Proud to be Cheap: The "Secret Sauce" of Low-Cost Winners

By Jon R. Katzenbach and Zia Khan - Harvard Business Review

A lot of companies in a lot of places these days have been struggling to cut costs. Most of them are discovering the hard way that they have for too long put up with too much redundant and wasteful activity. For many, the problem is only starting, largely because thus far they are simply "mandating" cost reductions either across the board or to meet hastily set one-time targets. For these companies, cost cuts are likely to be no more enduring than a one-time haircut.

A few special companies, however, have taken the recessionary squeeze pretty much in stride. These are companies who, like Southwest Airlines, FedEx, and Emerson Electric, have historically been the role models for low cost operation. They seem to always have a cost advantage, and as a result they get through tough times almost as easily as they capitalize on good times. It's not that they don't tighten their belts when the economy dries up a bit; rather it is that they seem to know where and how to tighten in ways that do not inhibit their long-term capability to compete and grow. What's in their secret sauce?

In a nutshell, it is a culture that is "proud to be cheap" in good times and bad. Their people cut erasers in half, turn off the lights when they leave the building, bring their lunch to work, fly in the back of the bus, and stay in Day's Inns. More important, they are always on the alert for ways do things on the job more cheaply, without compromising quality and service standards. Nothing is wasted, nothing is redundant, and nothing is overlooked when it comes to doing it on the cheap.

..:: Check out the complete article: Proud to be Cheap: The "Secret Sauce" of Low-Cost Winners - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

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Does Your Office Need an Intervention? - Conversation Starter - HarvardBusiness.org

'If there's one thing the winners of the Boston Globe's 100 Top Places to Work have in common, it's this: They all believe it's good business to keep employees satisfied, motivated, and working hard. Show them respect,' says Shirley Leung, assistant managing editor of business news for the Globe.

But not every company is so lucky. In fact, many organizations are bastions of dysfunction, where overwork and stress fuel negative and aggressive behaviors. For example, take bullying — one of those behaviors which tends to spike up during stressful times. One recent study states, '37% of the U.S. workforce (an est. 54 million Americans) report being bullied at work; an additional 12% witness it. 49% of workers. Simultaneously 45% report neither experiencing nor witnessing bullying. Hence, a silent epidemic.'

..:: If this sounds like your company, maybe you need an office intervention ::..

Some say dysfunctional workplace behaviors, such as bullying and aggression, are just part of work, that they don't affect the bottom line, and that people should just 'knock it off,' and get back to business. But the results of this thinking deeply negatively impact business. 'The threat response is both mentally taxing and deadly to the productivity of a person — or of an organization. It impairs analytical thinking, creative insight, and problem solving,' says David Rock of Strategy+Business.

..:: Full article: Does Your Office Need an Intervention? - Conversation Starter - HarvardBusiness.org

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