Perhaps some employees would have tried harder to relay these issues up the chain of command, or perhaps senior leaders would have investigated the mysterious crashes more thoroughly, had the slogan “cost is everything” not dominated decision making. Like the “Faster, Better, Cheaper” approach that encouraged poor decision making at NASA in the 1970s, this drive to cut out fat inhibited systemic understanding. An engineer interviewed said that the emphasis on cost cutting “permeates the fabric of the whole culture,” leading to a privileging of timing over quality, and a resistance to raising
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