It starts by asking what a company can do with existing resources, and looks to streamline operations through right sizing and repressed spending.

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Of course, understanding the cost envelope for acquiring customers helped guide future marketing investments and activities, but fixing this problem was not only about cutting or right sizing the marketing budget.

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"The whole paradigm of banking is changing so there is a lot of right sizing and that will continue throughout this year, " said Michael Karp, managing partner at Options Group, a financial-services industry executive search firm.

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And corrective action on spending, if taken mid-year, does more harm and less good than right-sizing from the start.

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"These declines, without right-sizing the expense side of the postal equation, spell the end of the Postal Service, " he said.

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He pointed out that a 2009 study written by Paul Kedrosky, Right-Sizing the U.S. Venture Capital Industry, found that 16% of the 900 Inc. 100 companies between 1997 and 2007 took venture capital.

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