In Corporate Creativity, the authors Alan Robinson and Sam Stern write of how Bob Crandall, the former chairman of American Airlines, removed a single olive from every salad, and in doing so saved $500,000 annually.8 Many seized on this as a marginal gain. But was it? After all, if removing an olive is a good idea, why not the lettuce too? At what point does an exercise in incremental cost-cutting start to impact on the bottom line?
