Cutting costs or cutting waste?

Tom Peters notes that quality programs to streamline processes and eliminate waste can have more long-lasting impact than cost reduction:

Cost reduction campaigns do not often lead to improved quality, and, except for those that involve large reductions in personnel, they don’t usually result in long-term lower costs either. On the other hand, effective quality programs yield not only improved quality but lasting cost reductions as well. And all this doesn’t even touch upon increased revenues from more sales resulting from improved quality. [pg 98]

Topics: Cash positive, Profitability, Survival