Why Cost Reduction Programs Fail: What the 14% Do Differently

Most cost programs don’t fail because of bad strategy. They fail because nobody runs the plan every week once the announcement is made. Deloitte’s 2026 Enterprise Cost Transformation Survey shows this at the largest scale. It’s even more true in a mid-sized company, where nobody has follow-through as their only job.

Deloitte surveyed 500 C-suite executives at organizations with more than $5 billion in revenue. These companies have transformation offices, restructuring reserves and outside advisors on retainer. Even so:

• 96% are pursuing a cost transformation right now, and 59% are targeting a reduction of 10% or more.
• 67% expect to hit their targets.
• 14% actually achieved their primary cost reduction goal last year.
• 24% account for value leakage, the savings that disappear between the plan and the result.

Deloitte summed it up in six words: “Strategy is clear, but speed is not.” …Read More

Is your company’s strategic plan too complex, unclear, or ineffective? Unfortunately, most strategic frameworks are difficult to explain and impossible to implement. As a result, people quickly forget them. That is where Group50® comes in. We take a simplified, results-driven approach. Therefore, every stakeholder follows one clear roadmap. That includes owners, board members, employees, customers, and suppliers. With Group50’s Where to Play and How to Win framework, you get a one-page strategic plan. In short, there is no jargon and no confusion, just a clear path to success.

A Simple, Powerful Approach to Strategic Planning

Is your company’s strategic plan too complex, unclear, or ineffective?

To help you assess your own organization, we’ve created a free survey:

Strategy Execution Risk Assessment Survey

This survey will help you quickly identify the biggest risks to your strategy execution and determine whether Value Stream Mapping Consulting would deliver high ROI for your company.

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It’s planning season for 2027, and the companies that win next year are deciding how this fall. If you’re about to hire a strategic planning consultant, make sure you’re buying more than a plan. You need a way to execute it. Using …Read More

Many companies want to maximize their performance through Continuous Improvement (CI). However, most only get incremental improvements and never realize the true benefit of a culture of continuous improvement. Our work with dozens of companies on this journey demonstrates that leaders must follow a very specific process when they design and implement a Continuous Improvement Operating System. Fortunately, this process works for companies of any size. For example, check out the results of the Danaher Business System, which many leaders identify as the way to do it right. …Read More

As leaders, we all know that good enough doesn’t cut it. But in today’s lean and remote organizations, teams tend to accept “Good Enough”, which checks the box so that they can move on to the next critical issue in the business. It is a potential trap that can lead to mediocrity and subpar performance.  It can create: …Read More

Updated October 2026 with Gallup’s latest workplace data.

Remote employee engagement is still the biggest lever most companies aren’t pulling. Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report found that only 20% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, down from 21% the year before. In the U.S. it’s 31%, down from 36% in 2020. Whether your people work in the office, at home or both, the question is the same: …Read More

Please join the west coast chapter of the International Association of Strategic Planners and I on the 19th of April where we will talk about how to apply the Business Hierarchy of Needs® framework to improve the results of developing and implementing strategy.

The presentation will be based on my recently published book: Strategy Realized – The Business Hierarchy of Needs®.

What mistakes are leaders making when it comes to developing and implementing strategy? 

No MBA is necessary to listen to this episode on The Business Hierarchy of Needs® with Jim Gitney, just an intense interest in stakeholder alignment, employee engagement and increased profitability.

Learn from a master about the Business Hierarchy of Needs(R) framework as described in Jim’s book, “Strategy Realized: The Business Hierarchy of Needs®” . …Read More

With the recent downturn in productivity across corporate America and the significant increase in remote work, Host Andrew Bartolotta sits down with Jim Gitney, CEO of Group50 Consulting and author of Strategy Realized – The Business Hierarchy of Needs, where Jim discusses ways to significantly increase employee engagement in the development and implementation of business strategy through his patented framework. …Read More

If you’ve ever had a strategic initiative fail at your organization and thought to yourself, “What am I doing wrong as a leader?” this episode is for you. The truth is, most leaders end up with several failed strategies under their belt. The trick is to stop making the same mistakes and lean into some best practices for strategic planning that actually work. There’s no one better to teach leaders how to build that foundation and grow through strategy than our latest guest. Jim Gitney, the Founder and CEO of Group50® Consulting has 45 years of corporate and consulting experience working with over 200 companies in guiding them toward double-digit top line and bottom line growth. Listen to the full conversation for more on the top mistakes business owners make when it comes to successful strategic initiatives, what the “Business Hierarchy of Needs®” is (and what CEOs can learn from it), the downsides of having too many goals, how to align compensation structures in a way that encourages forward motion on your strategic initiatives, and much more. Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Learn: …Read More