对于数字化转型的价值，简单而言就是“降本增效”。顾名思义，就是降低成本，增加效益（出自《荀子·富国》）。对于单个企业而言，就是效益越来越好，越来越赚钱；对于打工人而言，就是劳动生产率不断提高，打工人在同样的劳动强度和单位时间内产出价值更高、收益也更多。然而在实践中，“降本增效”这个词却普遍被曲解：在打工人眼里，成了既要马儿跑，又要马儿不吃草；在企业中高层眼里，就是在经营困难的情况下为了“活着”而被动压缩企业各种开支。在近两年整体经济形势不那么好的情况下，“降本增效”这个词更是自带暗黑滤镜，在实施了“降本”的企业中，人心散了、人才流失了、整体业务能力下滑造成营收进一步恶化，最终成了网上流传的“降本增笑”。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
本次我们就来探讨下真正“降本增效”应该是什么样子：
一、重在“增效”而非“降本”
很多企业高层一想到“降本增效”这个词，就先琢磨着怎么降低成本，而最容易想到的就是人力成本。往往是先从员工福利开始降起，比如班车、下午茶、食堂、工会福利等等，再进一步就是降薪，最后就是裁员，甚至是大规模、整个部门或业务线一锅端。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
从今年双十一某大厂很多年没发生过的业务掉链子现象诡异出现开始，到某大厂APP突发情况无法使用并造成全国相当规模网约车大面积交通停摆和运营混乱。责任方在事后分别也都公布了具体技术原因和处理过程，其深层次原因无法准确判断，但有一点共识：这些大厂近年来由于互联网行业不景气，为降低成本大面积裁员，造成技术能力和系统运维能力下降。至于与相关突发事件是否有直接联系不得而知，但由于裁员引起的技术能力和系统运维能力下降，对于预防性维护和应对突发事件确实带来了不利影响。
而在数字化转型中，“降本增效”的正确姿势是什么样的呢？在《数字化转型“降本增效”的底层逻辑是什么》中，我们提到，数字化转型“降本增效”，体现在业务活动步骤化、步骤环节要素化、要素数据规格化、“以数据为中心的业务变革”四阶段：
1.以科学管理为代表的业务活动步骤化，推动了标准化生产和流水线，标准化生产减少了人工干预，降低了过程和质量管理成本；通过设计和优化流水线提高了设备资产和人力资源的利用率；
2.以精益管理为代表的步骤环节要素化，从价值和效益目标出发，将企业管理中各个具体业务环节的标准要求量化、要素化，明确每个环节的价值指标、参与角色、执行规则、外部约束等要素，对企业人力、物力和财力资源进行最大化的利用； 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
3.以管理自动化为代表的要素数据规格化，在步骤环节要素化基础上，对要素数据进行规格化、结构化改造，以适应二进制编码和计算机处理的需求。从而带来两方面的效率提升：（1）计算机相比人工处理带来的的运算效率提升；（2）网络通信相比传统通信手段带来的通信效率提升；
4.在“以数据为中心的业务变革”中，在管理自动化条件下，企业运行产生了大量的规格化和结构化数据。随着数据库、数据挖掘、大数据、数据智能等技术的发展，在精益管理和管理自动化的基础上更进一步，对数据进行高效利用以追求效益的需求催生了“以数据为中心的业务变革”。（具体见《“以数据为中心的业务变革”之三种范式》）
以上可见，数字化转型中的“降本增效”落脚点在于通过提高生产率实现企业“增效”。在这里，笔者提出一个明确的观点，“降本增效”重在“增效”而非“降本”，“降本”应当是在“增效”过程中自然实现的。
而实现“增效”的关键，就是对标科学管理、精益管理、管理自动化和对数据的有效应用，是对业务的变革和重构。只有打破了原有业务运行旧的的成本—效益平衡，在新的体系下提高效益，才能产生新的成本—效益平衡，合理降低运行成本。在不打破原有运行体系情况下，强行推动“降本”，得到的只能是“增笑”而非“增效”。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
二、是主动“增效”，不是被动“降本”
在经济高速发展时期，国内企业习惯了快速扩张抢占市场，不重视企业的管理改进。而当经营出现困难后，首先想到的却是业务收缩、裁员、降低日常运营成本。然而，在任何行业，业务高速扩张都只是昙花一现的短期效应、无法持续，追求稳定发展才是企业经营的常态。
笔者观点，“降本增效”的本质是管理改进，属于企业主动谋划的进取举措，而不是危机来临时为了“活着”的权宜之计。那国内企业为什么大多是被动“降本”而不是主动“增效”呢？因为“降本增效”触动的是企业核心的业务经营模式，是变法，是正确而又困难的事。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
曾经有博主宣扬“数字化转型就是帮企业领导砍人”，对此观点笔者旗帜鲜明予以反对。对于企业而言，最宝贵的资产永远不是厂房、设备，而是人才。有的企业在不开展业务模式优化的前提下贸然降薪、裁员，降低的是短期负担，却失去了优质的员工和成熟的经营团队，削弱的是企业长久的竞争力和人才吸引力，无异于饮鸩止渴。有的企业绞尽脑汁压缩开支，把心思用在了日常办公用品、差旅等刚性开支的缩减上，结果往往是省了小钱，误了大事，出了笑话，成了真正的“降本增笑”。
三、“增效”指经营性收益，非资本性收益
从会计角度，企业效益可以分为经营性收益和资本性收益。前者是指企业通过正确的生产经营决策，加强生产经营管理，进行技术创新，促使劳动生产率提高和产品成本降低所获得的生产经营净成果，是实实在在的价值创造过程。而后者是指企业利用资本投资所得的收益，如股息、利息、红利、或者被投资收入所形成的投资收益等，用一个词简单概括，就是融(pian)资(qian)。
在上一节我们提到：国内企业在经济高速发展时期，不是去提高经营性收益，而是热衷于跑马圈地、讲故事、画大饼，其目的在于通过资本市场获取高额的资本性收益。例如前些年互联网行业炙手可热的时候，很多初创公司不是用心经营企业去盈利创收，而是想方设法烧钱、做大用户规模；不是去用心打造产品，而是用心去雕琢PPT；与其啃企业经营的硬骨头，不如去玩点数字游戏，把表面上的财务数据报表做得更好看；甚至到了最后，不是比谁赚得多而是比谁亏得多，亏得多的反而在资本市场更受青睐。之所以出现上述怪现象，原因就在于这些逐利的资本追逐的是短期投机暴利，他们瞅准的是风险投资人和普通股民的口袋。
一旦泡沫破裂、资本出逃，企业经营就变成了泥沙俱下的被动“降本”。这个时候更没有人去关注企业的长远经营，只剩下短期“活着”的目标，很多企业就是在泡沫破裂的时候一路被动“降本，”从釜底抽薪到奄奄一息直至破产倒闭。 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
笔者认为，在数字化转型中，企业“降本增效”中的“增效”专指经营性收益，而非资本性收益。经营性收益是资本性收益的基础。在资本市场“讲故事”，讲的就是企业未来经营性收益的蓝图。只有企业经营的持续优化并带来近期、中期和远期的经营性收益，才能最终支撑资本性收益。讲的故事、画的大饼才能最终实现，而不是留下一地鸡毛的企业、被蹉跎岁月的员工，以及被扣上脏盆子的“降本增效”。
翻译：
What is the correct posture of enterprises to “reduce costs and increase efficiency”
For the value of digital transformation, it is simply to “reduce costs and increase efficiency”. As the name implies, it is to reduce costs and increase benefits (from Xunzi · Fuguo). For a single enterprise, the efficiency is getting better and better, more and more money; For workers, it is the continuous improvement of labor productivity, workers in the same labor intensity and unit of time to produce more value, more benefits. However, in practice, the word “reducing cost and increasing efficiency” is generally distorted: in the eyes of workers, it has become both to run horses and to not eat grass; In the eyes of the middle and senior management of enterprises, it is to passively reduce various expenses of enterprises in order to “live” under the circumstances of business difficulties. In the past two years, the overall economic situation is not so good, the word “cost reduction efficiency” is its own dark filter, in the implementation of the “cost reduction” of the enterprise, the people dispersed, the loss of talent, the overall business capacity decline caused further deterioration of revenue, and eventually became the “cost reduction and laughter” circulated on the Internet. 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
This time we will explore what the real “cost reduction and efficiency” should look like:
Focus on “efficiency” rather than “cost reduction”
When many business executives think of the word “reduce costs and increase efficiency”, they first think about how to reduce costs, and the most easy to think of is the human cost. It often starts with the reduction of employee benefits, such as shuttle buses, afternoon tea, cafeterias, union benefits, etc., followed by salary cuts, and finally layoffs, or even large-scale, entire departments or business lines.
From the bizarre appearance of a large factory’s business chain that has not occurred for many years in this year’s Double 11, to the sudden failure of a large factory APP to use and cause a large area of traffic shutdown and operation chaos in a considerable scale of network car hailing across the country. The responsible party also announced the specific technical reasons and processing process after the event, the underlying reasons can not be accurately judged, but there is a consensus: these large factories in recent years due to the depression of the Internet industry, in order to reduce costs, a large number of layoffs, resulting in a decline in technical capabilities and system operation and maintenance capabilities. As for whether there is a direct link to related emergencies, it is not clear, but the decline in technical capabilities and system operation and maintenance capabilities caused by layoffs has had an adverse impact on preventive maintenance and response to emergencies.
And in the digital transformation, what is the right posture of “cost reduction and efficiency”? In What is the underlying logic of “Cost Reduction and Efficiency Increase” in digital transformation, we mentioned that “cost reduction and efficiency increase” in digital transformation is reflected in four stages of business activity steps, step elements, factor data normalization, and “data-centric business change” :
- The steps of business activities represented by scientific management promote standardized production and assembly line, and standardized production reduces manual intervention and process and quality management costs; The utilization rate of equipment assets and human resources is improved by designing and optimizing the pipeline.
- Step and link factionalization, represented by lean management, quantifies and factors the standard requirements of each specific business link in enterprise management from the value and efficiency goals, defines the value index, participation role, implementation rules, external constraints and other elements of each link, and maximizes the utilization of human, material and financial resources of the enterprise; 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
- Normalization of factor data represented by management automation, and normalization and structural transformation of factor data on the basis of step and link factorization to meet the needs of binary coding and computer processing. Thus brings two aspects of efficiency improvement: (1) compared with manual processing, computer operation efficiency is improved; (2) Improved communication efficiency brought by network communication compared with traditional communication means;
- In the “data-centric business transformation”, under the condition of management automation, the operation of the enterprise generates a large amount of normalized and structured data. With the development of database, data mining, big data, data intelligence and other technologies, further on the basis of lean management and management automation, the need for efficient use of data to pursue benefits has spawned a “data-centric business change.” (See “Three paradigms for Data-Centric Business Change”) 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
It can be seen above that the goal of “cost reduction and efficiency increase” in digital transformation is to achieve enterprise “efficiency increase” by improving productivity. Here, the author puts forward a clear point of view that “reducing cost and increasing efficiency” focuses on “increasing efficiency” rather than “reducing cost”, and “reducing cost” should be achieved naturally in the process of “increasing efficiency”.
The key to achieve “efficiency” is scientific management, lean management, management automation and effective application of data, which is the change and reconstruction of the business. Only by breaking the old cost-benefit balance of the original business operation and improving the efficiency under the new system, can the new cost-benefit balance be generated and the operating cost be reduced reasonably. In the case of not breaking the original operating system, forcibly promoting “cost reduction” can only be “laughter” rather than “efficiency”.
It is active “efficiency”, not passive “cost reduction”
In the period of rapid economic development, domestic enterprises are accustomed to rapid expansion to seize the market, and do not pay attention to the management improvement of enterprises. When business difficulties arise, the first thing that comes to mind is business contraction, layoffs, and reduction of daily operating costs. However, in any industry, the rapid expansion of business is only a short-lived short-term effect that cannot be sustained, and the pursuit of stable development is the normal state of business operation. 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
From the author’s point of view, the essence of “reducing costs and increasing efficiency” is management improvement, which belongs to the enterprise’s initiative to plan aggressive measures, rather than a temporary measure to “live” when the crisis comes. Why are most domestic enterprises passively “reducing costs” rather than actively “increasing efficiency”? Because “reducing cost and increasing efficiency” touches the core business operation model of the enterprise, it is a reform, and it is a correct and difficult thing.
There have been bloggers advocating that “digital transformation is to help business leaders cut people”, the author clearly opposes this view. For enterprises, the most valuable asset is never plant, equipment, but talent. Some enterprises in the premise of not carrying out business model optimization, cut wages and layoffs, reduce the short-term burden, but lose high-quality employees and mature management team, weaken the long-term competitiveness of the enterprise and talent attraction, which is tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst. Some enterprises have racked their brains to reduce expenses, and put their minds to the reduction of rigid expenses such as daily office supplies and travel, and the result is often to save a small amount of money, miss a big event, make a joke, and become a real “cost reduction and laughter.” 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
“Efficiency increase” refers to operational income, not capital income
From the accounting point of view, the enterprise benefit can be divided into operating income and capital income. The former refers to the net results of production and operation obtained by enterprises through correct production and operation decisions, strengthening production and operation management, carrying out technological innovation, promoting labor productivity improvement and product cost reduction, and is a real process of value creation. The latter refers to the income obtained by an enterprise using capital investment, such as dividends, interest, dividends, or investment income formed by investment income, etc., which is simply summarized in one word, pian capital (qian).
In the previous section, we mentioned: in the period of rapid economic development, domestic enterprises are not to improve operational earnings, but are keen on riding horses, telling stories, and drawing big cakes, whose purpose is to obtain high capital returns through the capital market. For example, when the Internet industry was hot a few years ago, many start-up companies did not intend to operate enterprises to make profits and generate revenue, but tried to burn money and expand the scale of users; Not to create products, but to carve PPT; Instead of gnawing on the hard bones of enterprise management, it is better to play some numbers games and make the financial data statements on the surface better; Even in the end, it is not more than who earns more, but more than who loses more, and those who lose more are more favored in the capital market. The reason for the above strange phenomenon is that these profit-seeking capital chase short-term speculative profits, they are looking at the pockets of venture investors and ordinary investors. 数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）
Once the bubble burst and capital fled, the business operation became a passive “cost reduction” under the mud. At this time, no one pays attention to the long-term operation of the enterprise, leaving only the short-term “alive” goal, and many enterprises are passive “reducing costs” all the way when the bubble bursts, from the bottom to the dying until bankruptcy.
The author believes that in the digital transformation, the “efficiency” in the enterprise “cost reduction and efficiency” refers to operational income, rather than capital income. Operating income is the basis of capital income. In the capital market, “telling a story” tells the blueprint of the future operational income of the enterprise. Only the continuous optimization of enterprise operation and the near-term, medium-term and long-term operating income can ultimately support the capital return. Only by telling the story and drawing the big pie can the final realization be achieved, rather than leaving a field of chicken feathers, employees wasting their time, and “reducing costs and increasing efficiency” being buttoned up.
本文由数字化转型网（www.szhzxw.cn）转载而成，来源于数字化老兵；编辑/翻译：数字化转型网宁檬树。
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