Implementation of strategic principles in cost management: Control of cost variations through statistical studies

Abstract

The knowledge about costs and their evolution represent an essential element in decision process. The priority given to the cost analysis in the decision process can be explained through the fact that often the main factor is the financial implication of the selected decision made by the manager. The management of a company can find in the cost information an important instrument for adjustment, orientation and optimization of the operational and future activity because the cost appears in all its activities. The paper presents some aspects regarding the costs and their role in the management of enterprise because the information concerning costs play a vital part in formulating more performing strategies to get lasting competitive advantage. We intend to highlight the importance of the strategic planning and the role of costs management in a business medium, because the costs structure can be really an advantage in establishing the way in which the performance can be obtained “a durable competitive advantage” (M. Porter, 2001). The recent evolution of the management accounting is essentially characterized by the passing from an information system to a whole bunch of instruments guided towards outward part, strategy and future. Under these conditions, our paper tries to point out the necessity of inclusion the principles of strategy into the management of costs. Therefore, we consider a necessity of a managerial, contemporary system. Such an approach lays down the premises of a new philosophy of costs and opens new perspectives of approaching the management accounting. As result of the recent theories regarding the costs and their determinants factors, theories that contradicted the dominated idea in the classical analytic theory accordingly whose production volume determine the costs, at present, the cost management should consider the variety and complexity of all factors. Considering the randomly character of these factors’ influence, for getting some rigorous results that can be the basis for adopting some efficient decisions, in the paper we propose statistical studies based on the influence of the determinant factors, studies based on the using of notions from probability theory and mathematical statistics. The main purpose of these studies is represented by the control of cost evolution, in the condition of incertitude and risk for the companies’ activity. Keywords: Costs, Management accounting, Strategic management of costs, Incertitude, Risk, Statistical studies, Mathematical statistics.