You don’t create better products by cutting costs. You cut costs after you create a better product.
It may be tempting for companies with unpopular products to cut costs in order to hide a shrinking or flat market share. This is cost management as denial.
A free marketplace does not forgive companies that fail to produce better products. Time and again, consumers have rejected the more affordable product for one they perceive to be better. (Before Starbucks, who paid $3 for a cup of coffee?)
Cost management helps companies with already successful products increase market share.
Take Apple. First, they create a must-have product that does not compete on price. Then they make it cheaper so that more people can buy it. This approach has made them the most profitable in their sector.
This is cost management as an accelerant.