Number of words: 141

During the strategic planning process, I learned that at United, as at many companies, management has been intensely focused on controlling and containing labour cost. That is important, of course, but it overlooks the fact that for an airline, and probably many other companies, only a third of the total cost of operation is in labour. 

So why spend hundred percent of your management time focusing on 33% of your costs, especially in an area that is so fraught with emotion? You could be spending a lot more time on the other 67% of the cost structure. You may make a lot more progress that way, and it is much easier to get everyone to help, if you are not focusing on pay or job reductions. 

Excerpted from Pg 124 of ‘Lessons from the heartland of American Business’ by Gerald Greenwald