Driving Down Cost: How to Manage and Cut Costs--Intelligently

Review
"Mr. Wileman's text is irrepressible: jaunty, energetic and all-knowing ... The author knows his subject. He has been cutting swaths through flabby balance sheets and cost structures for three decades ... Mr. Wileman is tough on headcount, suppliers, outsourcing and timeframes for action, but he is neither vandal or sadist. He just hates unnecessary cost ... There will be clients grateful for his distinctive blend of candor and can-do." -- Financial Times, June 12, 2008

"Cost-cutting may be an unglamorous subject for a business author. But it is an undeniably timely one. In Driving Down Cost: How to Manage and Cut Costs--Intelligently Andrew Wileman, who has served as a consultant (for Booz Allen Hamilton and Boston Consulting Group) and journalist (for Management Today) has produced a practical and readable book, shot through with appealing empathy for struggling firms....Mr Wileman's prose brims with useful tips; dry business theory is handled lightly; personal anecdotes are actually amusing; and each chapter closes with a summary presented in bullet points--to comfort the flipchart addict." -- TheEconomist.com, Aug. 27, 2008

"Driving down cost has long been the neglected Cinderella of management, but Wileman's book makes it the Belle of the Ball. Brilliant!" -- Richard Koch, entrepreneur-investor and author of the bestselling The 80/20 Principle

"Fills an amazingly large gap in the business book universe, with substance and insight. Read it to stay ahead, in tough times and good times." -- Chris Outram, Founder and Partner, OC&C Strategy Consultants

"It's good to find a management book that doesn't read as if it was written in PowerPoint, and even better, from the CA's point of view, to find one that celebrates the "unsung heroes" of business: the cost managers." -- Chartered Accountant Magazine, July 1, 2008

"Topical, practical and very entertaining. Well worth its own cost." -- Charles Wilson, CEO of Booker Group

Product Description
Review
'Fills an amazingly large gap in the business book universe, with substance and insight. Read it to stay ahead, in tough times and good times.' --Chris Outram, Founder & Partner, OC&C Strategy Consultants


Review
'Topical, practical and very entertaining. Well worth its own cost.' --Charles Wilson, CEO of Booker Group


Review
'An incisive and engrossing read on what could be a dry business topic. Understanding cost is at the heart of good management.' --Geoff Cooper, CEO of Travis Perkins


Product Description
This is the first accessible and practical book to address cost management in a general and holistic way for managers at every level and in every function. Driving Down Cost sets out a structured, practical approach to intelligent cost management, offering a toolkit of key ideas and cost management strategies, frameworks for analyzing cost, and practical techniques for implementing cost-reduction programs. Cost management is not an issue only for the CEO, or for senior management, or for technical specialists. Junior managers who are proactively tight on cost are learning good habits for the future, ones that will bring them recognition and advance their climb up the organizational chart. And cost management is relevant to private-sector businesses and public-sector organizations, and to managers in every function. You only need to engage in high-profile cost cutting if you haven t been effective at long-haul cost management.While this book does cover one-off cost reduction programs, its main theme is what interests most managers a sustained cost management program. In this timely book Andrew Wileman gives you the inside scoop on what has worked for him over years of consulting on costs. He looks at the smart ways cost can be created and the even more innovative ways they can be cut like getting your customers to do your work for you, or turning cost into revenue. Sometimes cost management is in fashion, sometimes it is out of vogue. As it happens, the US, the UK and other big Western economies are currently appearing shaky. A cost-cutting wave looks imminent and this book's theme seems prescient. But actually, timing does not and should not matter. In three or five years time growth will be back, but cost will still be critical. Cost management is not just for downturns, but for always.