If you are introducing cost-cutting in your innovation agenda, your ultimate drive is to create a cost culture that sustains itself over time and is not forgotten three months after being announced by the leadership.
Step 4: Overcoming fears over cost-cutting within your innovation agenda
Typically, cost-cutting is an expression that frightens employees. It often suggests salary reductions, job cuts and increased individual workload. When introduced in your innovation agenda, you should thus ensure that both real needs and strategy are understood across the organisation, consistently framing any cost-cutting goals.
For step 2 in cost-cutting within your innovation agenda, you will need this
A cost-cutting initiative within your innovation agenda needs to be run as a strategic initiative with the same board sponsorship, direction and accountability as any other critical initiative. It is important to ensure central governance, senior management agreement and employees’ engagement.
What are the good and the bad costs in your innovation agenda?
When introducing a cost-cutting strategy in your innovation agenda, you should first have a clear view of your company’s strategy and map out good and bad costs for programme intervention, at macro and micro levels. Both macro- and micro-level-oriented strategies have value and they often make more sense combined.
First, ask what your innovation purpose is
What is your company’s innovation mission? And how does your initiative take part in carrying it out?