If you manage costs, your costs go up.

Some examples:

  • Managing activity as cost
  • Setting work standards
  • Specialisation and standardisation of work
  • ‘Driving’ customers into cheaper ‘channels’
  • Out-sourcing on a transactions/volume basis
  • Managing to budgets

 
But current measures keep managers blind to the phenomenon.

The first clue that will open management’s eyes to the problem is failure demand.