MIT Sloan Management Review Article on To Cut Costs, Know Your Customer

  • 4m
  • Roger Best, Shrihari Sridhar, Vikas Mittal
  • MIT Sloan Management Review
  • 2020

The economic disruptions caused by the ongoing pandemic are forcing myriad decisions on CEOs of B2B companies. Often, the most pressing decisions are whether and how to cut costs.

As in business downturns past, some CEOs are implementing across-the-board salary cuts and widespread furloughs, while others are taking a more piecemeal approach — renegotiating vendor contracts; trimming underperforming products, regions, and divisions; and shifting to lower-cost sales channels. Our research shows that both of these approaches can be misguided.

A more effective cost-cutting strategy should begin — and end — with customer focus.

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  • MIT Sloan Management Review Article on To Cut Costs, Know Your Customer