Busting Bureaucracy: Achieving Durable Cost Savings

Slashing budgets or headcount delivers quick savings, but the evidence is clear: layoffs and blunt cost cuts rarely improve long‑term performance.

Research spanning four decades shows that market gains vanish within days, profitability often declines over time, and the hidden costs—lost knowledge, weakened innovation, disengaged survivors—erode the very performance leaders hoped to protect.^1,2

As of July 2025, U.S. job cut announcements have topped 800,000—the highest rate since 2020’s pandemic shock—with some driven by the promise of AI replacing human work.³

Durable cost savings come from fixing how work gets done, not just slashing expenditures. That means rooting out bureaucratic drag, streamlining decisions, focusing on outcomes over process, and engaging people so they give their best.

Measure twice, and cut once.

Change the behaviors that waste time and energy, getting at the root of waste—while safeguarding performance and growth for the future.

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¹Steel, P., & House, A. (2024). The longitudinal impact of workforce reductions: A meta-analysis of financial, human capital, and organizational outcomes. Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, 3, Article 1237750. https://doi.org/10.3389/frbhe.2024.1237750

²Weng, Y., et al. (2023). Stock investors’ reaction to layoff announcements: A meta-analysis. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4578779

³Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. (2025). U.S. job cut announcements total 806,383 through July, the highest YTD since 2020 pandemic spike. Challenger Report, July 2025.

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