We all want to have more money, or a better car, or a nicer house but the budget never seems to stretch that far. No matter how hard we work there just never seems to be enough surplus funds left over.
Well let’s put it this way, you’re not alone. That’s right companies are always trying to think of ways to generate more net profit. With the rise of the internet, more competition and more choices to be had, companies need to come up with inventive ways to save and increase their profit margins. One of the earliest recognitions of this was in the 1980s with American airlines cutting 1 olive from all their salads on all flights resulting in savings as high as $100,000 annually.
After doing some research on the internet I collated the top 6 strangest, inventive and most surprising ways that companies have tried to save:
In 2004 UPS implemented a no left turn policy as trucks guzzle more fuel turning left.
Bank of America cut costs by reducing the weight of their ATM receipts from 20lbs to 15lbs.
In 2008 McDonalds cuts 1 slice of cheese from their McDouble sandwich saving 6 cents per sandwich imagine the saving across all restaurants worldwide.
In 2008 Cisco shut down for 4 days between December 29th and January 2nd and all workers are placed on unpaid leave, apparently saving $1 billion.
In 2009 Yahoo implemented a week’s unpaid Christmas leave for staff saving $21 million that year.
In 2009 Ryanair reduced the amount of ice sold, changed their in-flight magazine from A5 to A4 and even proposed to attendants to lose weight to save on fuel costs. How far companies will go to save!
Which is your favourite? Mine would have to be the budget airline Ryanair, they will literally go to any level in order to save and stay competitive in the market, to offer the lowest cost flights.
Get in contact and get involved if you have managed to save big with little effort.