A flat percentage cut across every department is the fastest way to hit a margin target and one of the most reliable ways to damage the capability a business needs for its next growth phase.
Separate cost into three tiers, not one
We ask clients to classify spend into cost that protects today's revenue, cost that builds tomorrow's, and cost that does neither. Uniform cuts treat all three the same; differentiated cuts protect the first two disproportionately.
Sequence structural cost ahead of headcount
Structural costs — vendor contracts, facility footprint, process redundancy — are usually available to cut before headcount, and cutting them first buys time to make workforce decisions deliberately instead of under quarter-end pressure.
Track the number monthly, not annually
Cost programs that are reviewed only at year-end tend to drift. A monthly tracked number, owned by name, is what keeps a transformation program honest against its original case.