Don't Ain to Cut Costs

 Many people (even quite a lot of managers and directors) think that productivity improvement involves cutting costs.  It can - and certainly cutting costs should improve productivity.  However this should not form the basis of a productivity improvement strategy.

Concentrating on cutting costs tends to lead to, at best, sub-optimal changes in the organisation and, at worst, a disastrous s loss of vital skills and expertise.

Productivity improvement should not form part of an organisation's strategy - it should BE the strategy.  The aim should be to make revolutionary and/or incremental changes to what the organisation does - and how it does it - in pursuit of improved quality, resilience and overall excellence.

Such changes should then drive improvements in revenue and lowering of costs (pro rata to output).  So cost-cutting is the result of an effective productivity improvement strategy, not the basis of it.