Cut Costs, Grow Stronger : A Strategic Approach to What to Cut and What to Keep. Paul Leinwand

In chapter 5, we lay out four common impediments to a wise cost-cutting strategy—all grounded in some of the habitual ways of thinking that you may take for granted. And in the Afterword, we describe the longer-term benefit of taking a capability-driven view of your business and how to use the new habits of a capability-oriented mindset to help your company grow.

      We believe capability-driven strategy is an important concept in general, not just for what it tells us about costs and capabilities. The concept tells us about the value of a company’s assets, the constitution of its portfolio, the productivity and relevance of its efforts, and its right to win in the market. We are writing a separate full-length book on this subject. In effect, that will be the expansionist version of the survivalist tale we’re telling here. The world won’t be playing defense forever.

For more information on our ongoing “right to win” research and the forthcoming book on that subject (and to sign up for an electronic newsletter on this work), please visit our Web site page: http://www.booz.com/ccgs.