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Q: I am a controller at one of the larger remanufacturing companies in the United States, and I have a question about cutting costs within our office. It has long bothered me that our staff consumes flavored coffee, bottled water and sometimes catered lunches on the company. Recently, upper management reached an agreement that the spending has gotten out of control and discretionary expenses must be curbed. Do you have any ideas to how we can implement tighter policies without "turning off" the troops or making me the fall guy? — Louis
A: You're not alone in your concern about discretionary perks. Those nickels and dimes do add up to significant dollars. Many of today's CFOs are in a similar position, and share your quandary about the best way to successfully implement change.
For example, as a direct result of the economy, Lucent Technologies recently cut additional employee "perks" in order to reduce the number of necessary layoffs. Not only have free coffee and water coolers disappeared, but they also looked to every area of the company, including technology perks (i.e. BlackBerry wireless handheld devices, cellular phones) and travel expenses. In other companies, it's gone as far as removing disposable coffee cups, reducing desk lighting, eliminating soda machine subsidies and removing indoor plants to reduce necessary maintenance.
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