Originally Posted by
old,not bold
A cost is a cost; something you have to buy or pay (eg tax) in order to run a business. It is a negative figure in the P&L account. (Let's not get into depreciation, which is also a cost). Wrapping that definition in psychobabble simply allows CEOs and CFOs who have no understanding of the hard facts of life to delude themselves that their business is healthy when the hard reality is that it is loss-making and thus heading for administration.
So true. It never cease to amaze me how many finance types can spend hours over the minutiae of balance sheets, and making the numbers work, but have no comprehension of the commercial implications of what those numbers are telling them.