siliconindia | | February 201819In this day and age of `Asset Light' which is the fancy of all investors, it is imperative to focus more on the wastages that may not be producing any valueto the working of the routine. Hence they can take a more objective call on what is being wasted.Capex is the most abusive word today for most CFOs. In this day and age of `Asset Light' which is the fancy of all investors, it is imperative to focus more on the wastages that may not be producing any value. Im reminded of Benjamin Franklins quote ­ "It is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel". Because keeping profitably intact is always the main challenge (well unless you're one of the new age so called startups or so called tech companies, who are apparently mandated to lose money!) So if your not one of those startups and / or tech companies, then you need to manage that chimney. Focus on the wastages within the business big and small. One of the areas that are commonly looked at nowadays is `Digitization' and while I'm for digitization and so called paperless, both are not always a good thing. For many applications, Paper or low tech options are far better. Not only because of the other cost of digitization. I mean think of all the power consumption by the computers, servers and subsequent air-conditioning. How many phones, chargers and extra batteries do we need and carry. I have found it better to have areas like marketing materials and samples as it's always easier to browse in hard copy than going through vast number of files on the computer. Think of the cost of licenses and the cost of AMC being paid to each vendor. While im certainly not advocating avoiding or stopping any of these I feel many areas costs can be reduced by focusing on what's really required.Often when I cross the many buildings in BKC Mumbai while going for dinner, I see whole host of them with their lights on. This is done so that the house keeping guys can clean the premise as can be seen cleaning through the glass windows. But irrespective of which location they are cleaning the lights are on in the entire building including the glamorous conference rooms. While cleaning, all that's needed are 50 percent of the lights. That if saved everyday for the entire building is direct profit and potential money that can be used elsewhere. Simple things of wastage like this can be identified throughout the organization and must be done on a continuous basis. Just like deep breathing, wastage reduction is something we all know but to be reminded constantly. That benefits us all.
< Page 9 | Page 11 >