There is a long history of companies that became obsessively focused on cost, at the expense of providing a product or service of value to the customer. The fact of the matter is you can make a pizza so cheap no one is willing to eat it. The obsession with cost cutting can be counterproductive to fulfilling the real mission of any business: to create wealth for the customer. An obsession with cost accounting and cost control causes the business to be inward looking, rather outward focused, and as a result all costs are viewed as democratic and are subject to across-the-board cuts, without taking into account those costs that add no value to the customer.