Lessons Learned: Cash is not king
The big takeaway is the description of sacred cows that can choke a company:
The hardest costs to cut are those that are embodied in sacred cows.
For example: we have to have strong documentation for our internal
API's, else we might not be able to have third parties use them in the
future; we can't afford to ship a low-quality product to our customers,
because it might diminish our startup's brand image; we can't charge
for our product until it contains Essential Feature X; we have to have
a dozen managers sign off on every proposed feature, to protect the
integrity of our product. Each of these might be good policies, at
least for one stage of the feedback loop. Once they attain sacred
status, they are rarely questioned. A crisis is sometimes needed to
force that reexamination. In fact, every single lean transformation
documented in books like Lean Thinking took place in the midst of serious external threats.