{"id":16239,"date":"2026-07-28T08:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=16239"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:06:15","slug":"horvath-cost-reduction-becomes-the-primary-source-of-funding-for-corporate-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=16239","title":{"rendered":"Horv\u00e1th: Cost Reduction Becomes the Primary Source of Funding for Corporate Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>Cost optimization ranks\u00a0as the second-highest strategic priority\u00a0for CEOs<\/strong>, immediately after artificial\u00a0intelligence and digital\u00a0transformation.<\/span><\/li><li><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>Companies are targeting\u00a0cost reductions equivalent\u00a0to 3% of\u00a0revenue in manufacturing\u00a0and 5% of\u00a0revenue in services<\/strong>, setting more ambitious\u00a0goals than in\u00a02025.<\/span><\/li><li><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>Despite a challenging\u00a0economic environment, operating\u00a0profit (EBIT) margins\u00a0are expected to\u00a0remain stable or\u00a0even post slight\u00a0growth in 2026.<\/strong><\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Cost reduction is\u00a0no longer merely\u00a0an exercise in\u00a0financial discipline or\u00a0a response to\u00a0economic uncertainty. For\u00a0a\u00a0growing number of\u00a0companies, operational\u00a0efficiency is becoming\u00a0the primary source\u00a0of funding for\u00a0investments in transformation, digitalization, and artificial\u00a0intelligence, according\u00a0to the\u00a0<strong>&#8220;CxO Priorities 2026&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0study conducted by\u00a0Horv\u00e1th, the international\u00a0management consulting firm\u00a0that has been\u00a0active in the\u00a0Romanian market for\u00a0more than 20\u00a0years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on interviews&nbsp;with more than&nbsp;1,000 C-level&nbsp;executives (CxOs), the&nbsp;study reveals that&nbsp;improving cost structures&nbsp;and profitability has&nbsp;become the&nbsp;<strong>second most important&nbsp;strategic priority<\/strong>&nbsp;for business leaders&nbsp;worldwide, following&nbsp;investments in artificial&nbsp;intelligence and digital&nbsp;transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Against this backdrop, efficiency targets are&nbsp;becoming increasingly ambitious. In 2026, manufacturing&nbsp;companies expect to&nbsp;achieve cost reductions&nbsp;equivalent to&nbsp;<strong>3% of revenue<\/strong>, while companies in&nbsp;the services sector&nbsp;are targeting savings&nbsp;of&nbsp;<strong>5% of revenue<\/strong>. Compared with the&nbsp;previous edition of&nbsp;the study, these&nbsp;targets have increased&nbsp;by&nbsp;<strong>0.5 percentage points<\/strong>&nbsp;in manufacturing and&nbsp;<strong>2.7 percentage points<\/strong>&nbsp;in services, highlighting&nbsp;that efficiency is&nbsp;increasingly viewed as&nbsp;an investment in&nbsp;competitiveness rather&nbsp;than simply a&nbsp;cost-control measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For manufacturing companies, the largest cost&nbsp;reductions are expected&nbsp;in&nbsp;<strong>selling, general and&nbsp;administrative (SG&amp;A) expenses (28%)<\/strong>, followed by&nbsp;<strong>indirect production costs&nbsp;(14%)<\/strong>. In the services&nbsp;sector, the biggest&nbsp;savings are expected&nbsp;to come from&nbsp;<strong>personnel expenses (34%)<\/strong>, followed by&nbsp;<strong>selling, general and&nbsp;administrative (SG&amp;A) expenses<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Horv\u00e1th study&nbsp;shows that cost&nbsp;reduction programs are&nbsp;no longer focused&nbsp;solely on cutting&nbsp;operating expenses.&nbsp;Instead, the emphasis&nbsp;is shifting toward&nbsp;simplifying organizational&nbsp;structures, optimizing&nbsp;business processes, and&nbsp;improving productivity,&nbsp;allowing the resulting&nbsp;savings to be&nbsp;reinvested in new&nbsp;technologies and corporate&nbsp;transformation initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">&#8220;In recent years, cost reduction was primarily viewed as a response to economic uncertainty. Today, we are seeing a paradigm shift: companies are using efficiency improvements to generate resources for investments in artificial intelligence, digitalization, and the\u00a0development of new\u00a0competitive advantages.\u00a0Companies that successfully\u00a0combine financial discipline\u00a0with transformation investments\u00a0will be best\u00a0positioned for the\u00a0next growth cycle,&#8221; said\u00a0<strong>Maria Boldor, Partner\u00a0and Managing Director, Horv\u00e1th Romania<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regarding the main&nbsp;risks anticipated by&nbsp;executives over the&nbsp;coming period,&nbsp;<strong>manufacturing companies<\/strong>&nbsp;rank&nbsp;<strong>supply chain disruptions&nbsp;(56%)<\/strong>&nbsp;as&nbsp;the top concern, followed by&nbsp;<strong>rising energy prices&nbsp;(51%)<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>changes in trade&nbsp;tariffs (39%)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For&nbsp;<strong>service companies<\/strong>, financial risks dominate, with&nbsp;<strong>inflation (59%)<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>rising interest rates&nbsp;(45%)<\/strong>&nbsp;topping the list. However, executives in&nbsp;this sector are&nbsp;also concerned about&nbsp;<strong>higher energy prices&nbsp;(37%)<\/strong>, which rank among&nbsp;the top three&nbsp;anticipated risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite ongoing economic&nbsp;pressures, profitability&nbsp;expectations remain cautious&nbsp;but stable. The&nbsp;study forecasts that&nbsp;<strong>EBIT margins will&nbsp;remain stable in&nbsp;2026<\/strong>. In the services&nbsp;sector, operating profitability&nbsp;is expected to&nbsp;increase&nbsp;marginally from&nbsp;<strong>13.0% to 13.03%<\/strong>, while in manufacturing&nbsp;it is projected&nbsp;to rise from&nbsp;<strong>7.6% to 8.4%<\/strong>. This trend suggests&nbsp;that efficiency measures&nbsp;are beginning to&nbsp;deliver results and&nbsp;are creating the&nbsp;conditions for further&nbsp;investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2026 edition&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<strong>&#8220;CxO Priorities&#8221;<\/strong>&nbsp;study, titled&nbsp;<strong>&#8220;Rethink Competitiveness&nbsp;in the New&nbsp;Economic Reality,&#8221;<\/strong>&nbsp;is based on&nbsp;interviews with&nbsp;<strong>1,000 executives<\/strong>&nbsp;from companies across&nbsp;<strong>four continents<\/strong>, representing organizations&nbsp;with global reach. More than&nbsp;<strong>43%<\/strong>&nbsp;of participating companies&nbsp;generate&nbsp;<strong>annual revenues exceeding&nbsp;\u20ac1 billion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About Horv\u00e1th<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Horv\u00e1th is one&nbsp;of the world&#8217;s&nbsp;leading independent management&nbsp;consulting firms and&nbsp;has maintained a&nbsp;strong presence in&nbsp;the Romanian market&nbsp;since&nbsp;<strong>2005<\/strong>.&nbsp;Founded in&nbsp;<strong>Stuttgart in 1981<\/strong>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<strong>Prof. Dr. P\u00e9ter&nbsp;Horv\u00e1th<\/strong>, a pioneer of&nbsp;controlling in Germany, the firm now&nbsp;employs&nbsp;<strong>more than 1,400&nbsp;professionals worldwide<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Horv\u00e1th operates offices&nbsp;in&nbsp;<strong>Germany (Berlin, D\u00fcsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and Stuttgart), Austria, Romania, Switzerland,&nbsp;Hungary, Denmark, Saudi&nbsp;Arabia, the United&nbsp;Arab Emirates, and&nbsp;the United States<\/strong>, while serving clients&nbsp;around the globe. Horv\u00e1th is also&nbsp;a member of&nbsp;<strong>Cordence Worldwide<\/strong>, the leading global&nbsp;alliance of independent&nbsp;management consulting firms, bringing together nearly&nbsp;<strong>70 offices across&nbsp;24 countries on&nbsp;three continents<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Romania, Horv\u00e1th has been delivering top-tier consulting services for&nbsp;<strong>20 years<\/strong>. During this period, the Romanian team has completed&nbsp;<strong>more than 600 projects<\/strong>&nbsp;with a combined value exceeding&nbsp;<strong>\u20ac115 million<\/strong>, serving clients across industries including&nbsp;<strong>energy, banking and financial services, courier and logistics, retail and FMCG, pharmaceuticals, the public sector<\/strong>, and many others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cost optimization ranks\u00a0as the second-highest strategic priority\u00a0for CEOs, immediately after artificial\u00a0intelligence and digital\u00a0transformation. Companies are targeting\u00a0cost reductions equivalent\u00a0to 3% of\u00a0revenue in manufacturing\u00a0and 5% of\u00a0revenue in services, setting more ambitious\u00a0goals than in\u00a02025. Despite a challenging\u00a0economic environment, operating\u00a0profit (EBIT) margins\u00a0are expected to\u00a0remain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,19,18,12,6,3,5,17,317],"tags":[1162],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16242,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16239\/revisions\/16242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}