Cutting costs strategically

Need to cut costs?  Scott D. Anthony, president of the innovation consulting firm Innosight, advises instead thinking in terms of “re-featuring” your offerings. In a brief excerpt from his forthcoming book The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times, Anthony recommends figuring out what jobs customers are trying to get done when they purchase your products or services — and what objectives are important to them. That, in turn, will help you figure out which features are important to a given set of customers — and which are areas where you can trim costs.

For more on the concept of thinking in terms of the jobs customers are trying to get done, see “Finding the Right Job For Your Product”— an article by Anthony, Clayton Christensen, Gerald Berstell and Denise Nitterhouse, in the Spring 2007 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.