Fit for Growth

About the Authors

Vinay Couto is a principal at PwC's Strategy& with a focus on people and organization strategy. He leads the global Fit for Growth platform, helping organizations align their cost structures with their strategic priorities.

John Plansky serves as the U.S. leader of PwC's Strategy& and is a principal in the financial services practice. His expertise lies in helping clients navigate complex transformations and achieve sustainable growth.

Dr. Deniz Caglar is a principal at Strategy& specializing in organization design, corporate function efficiency, and shared services. His experience spans across various industries, aiding companies in optimizing their organizational structures and processes.

Main Idea

"Fit for Growth" is a strategic guide aimed at helping organizations manage costs in a way that promotes sustainable success. The authors argue that traditional cost-cutting methods often weaken companies. Instead, they propose the Fit for Growth concept, which involves aligning an organization's resources and investments with its key differentiating capabilities. This alignment ensures that cost structures, organization, and culture are strategically positioned to support growth.

Table of Contents

• Fit for Growth Overview
  1. Do You Need to Cut to Grow?
  2. Becoming Fit for Growth
  3. The Restructuring and Renewal Journey
• How to Cut Costs and Grow Stronger: A Manager’s Guide
  1. Levers of Cost Reduction: What, Where, and How
  2. Portfolio Rationalization
  3. Zero-Basing
  4. Aligning the Operating Model
  5. Outsourcing
  6. Process Excellence
  7. Spans and Layers
• Coping with Cost Restructuring: How to Manage and Sustain the Change
  1. Running a Cost Transformation
  2. The Human Element

Fit for Growth Overview

Organizations often need to cut costs to stimulate growth, especially in a competitive and interconnected market. To thrive, companies must manage costs as rigorously as they manage revenues. The Fit for Growth approach emphasizes aligning resources with the company’s strategy, focusing on a few differentiating capabilities, and organizing for growth.

Focus on Differentiating Capabilities: Identify and invest in the few capabilities that set your company apart.

Align Cost Structure: Ensure that costs are aligned with these capabilities.

Organize for Growth: Structure the organization to support and reinforce these capabilities.

This approach requires making tough decisions and trade-offs, but companies that manage to align their costs and organization with their strategic priorities achieve impressive and enduring results.

“Efforts to significantly change the cost structure of an organization must always be framed within the positive context of building unique, distinctive and powerful capabilities.” — Vinay Couto, John Plansky, Deniz Caglar

Do You Need to Cut to Grow?

Companies often face the challenge of cutting costs to foster growth. In today's interconnected and digital market, focusing on the bottom line is crucial. To be competitive, organizations need to manage costs with the same rigor as they pursue revenue growth. The Fit for Growth approach emphasizes the alignment of resources with strategic priorities, focusing on differentiating capabilities, and organizing for growth. This method requires difficult decisions and trade-offs, but those who align their costs and organization with their strategic goals achieve impressive and enduring results.