Cost Structure (2024)

Cost Structure (3)8.12 Cost Structure

The Cost Structure describes all costs incurred to make a business model work. Such costs can be calculated relatively easily after defining Key Resources, Key Activities, and Key Partnerships.

Cost Structure (4) Costs are minimized in every business model, but low Cost Structures are more important to Wal-mart, for example, and 'no frills' airlines. It's therefore helpful to distinguish between two broad classes of business models: cost-driven and value-driven (with many business models falling between these two extremes).

Cost-driven

Cost-driven business models minimize costs wherever possible, often through a low price Value Propositions, maximum automation, and extensive outsourcing.

Value-driven

Value-driven companies focus on a premium Value Proposition, often with a high degree of personalized service. Designer clothes, luxury hotels and asset management fall into this category.

Cost Structures also have the following characteristics:

Fixed costs

Costs remain the same regardless of the volume of goods or services. Examples are salaries, rents, and maintenance in factories, restaurants and leisure facilities.

Variable costs

Costs vary in proportion to the volume of goods or services. Music festivals are one example, as are hosting services.

Economies of scale

Costs per unit output fall as output expands. Mining and manufacturing companies belong to this category — usually to a certain level, when increasing scales bring their own technological problems.

Economies of scope

Larger companies may enjoy a wider scope of of mutually-supporting operations. Amazon, for example, was able to use the technology developed for Internet selling of books and other goods to offer cloud computing services at competitive prices.

Relevant Case Studies

Skype uses the Internet and does not have to manage its own network.

Early dotcom companies spent more on advertising than profits warranted.

OpenTable used the Internet to bring preexisting services together.

Apple adjusted its prices for the iPod as new models were made available.

Halberd Engineering divided into two companies with different cost structures.

Netscape was an innovative company but its cost structure soon became unviable.

Cost Structure (5)Questions

1. What are cost structures?
2. Describe six types of cost structure.
3. Describe the advanced web technologies that maintain competitiveness.
4. Describe in some detail a relevant case study.

Cost Structure (6)Sources and Further Reading

1. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur. Wiley 2010.

Cost Structure (2024)

FAQs

What is a cost structure example? ›

Examples include sales commissions, product cost, cost of labor and raw materials used in manufacturing, etc. Conversely, fixed costs are those that occur irrespective of the volume of selling or business activities. They are costs that accrue due to the passage of time such as insurance, salaries, and rent.

What are the types of cost structures? ›

The four main cost structure types are: value-driven structure, cost-driven structure, economies of scale and economies of scope. The three ways you can analyze your business' costs are: cost allocation, cost behavior analysis and break-even analysis.

How do you determine cost structure? ›

One needs to identify every cost incurred in relation to a cost object to define the cost structure. The fixed costs are the costs of those items that remain the same irrespective of the volume of goods and services.

What are the 4 types of cost? ›

Costs are broadly classified into four types: fixed cost, variable cost, direct cost, and indirect cost.

What is basic cost structure? ›

Cost structure refers to the various types of expenses a business incurs and is typically composed of fixed and variable costs. Fixed costs are costs that remain unchanged regardless of the amount of output a company produces, while variable costs change with production volume.

Why is cost structure important? ›

Cost structures are specifically important in business plans because they allow a business owner to reduce their expenses and set pricing for the business's products and services.

What are the main 3 types of cost? ›

These expenses include:
  • Variable costs: This type of expense is one that varies depending on the company's needs and usage during the production process. ...
  • Fixed costs: Fixed costs are expenses that don't change despite the level of production. ...
  • Direct costs: These costs are directly related to manufacturing a product.

What is Project cost structure? ›

May 1, 2020. 4 Min Read. Editorial Team. A Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS) is a breakdown or hierarchical representation of the various costs in a project. The Cost Breakdown Structure represents the costs of the components in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

What are the 5 types of cost? ›

The 5 costs they cover are:
  • Direct cost.
  • Indirect cost.
  • Fixed cost.
  • Variable cost.
  • Sunk cost.

How can cost structure be improved? ›

Cost structure improvements

Creating sustainable and scalable improvements to a company's cost structure involves three key actions: choosing or clearly defining the right business model, determining how decisions will be made, and mobilizing resources to put decisions into action.

What is cost structure in business model example? ›

Cost Structure defines all the costs and expenses that your company will incur while operating your business model. This final step in the process is important, because it will help your team decide whether to pivot or proceed.

What is service cost structure? ›

Cost structure is how costs related to selling a product or service are categorized for business purposes. It has several variables that define it and allow a business to determine operating costs on a broad, company-wide level or an individual product level.

What are the 2 main type of cost? ›

There are two kinds of costs, fixed and variable. Fixed and variable costs impact the business in different ways but both are important in making the business profitable.

What are the 6 categories of cost? ›

A supply professional knows that Price = Cost + Profit. He or she also must understand variable, fixed, semi-variable, total, direct, and indirect costs and how those costs influence prices.

What are the 6 types of cost? ›

Average and Marginal Cost.
  • Cost Type # 1. Real Cost:
  • Cost Type # 2. Opportunity Cost:
  • Cost Type # 3. Money Cost:
  • Cost Type # 4. Production Costs:
  • Cost Type # 5. Selling Costs:
  • Cost Type # 6. Fixed and Variable Costs:
  • Cost Type # 7. Fixed Costs or Supplementary Costs:
  • Cost Type # 8. Average and Marginal Cost:

What is high cost structure? ›

A cost structure is a high level model of the costs of an industry, organization, business model or business unit. This typically includes a high level categorization of costs, the proportional size of each category and a designation of fixed or variable cost.

What is the purpose of a structure? ›

The purpose of an organisation structure is to help the organisation to achieve its aims and objectives and employees to complete their work effectively and efficiently. An organisation structure allocates employees designated work roles and responsibilities and helps management to coordinate and control activities.

What does it mean to have a low cost structure? ›

In short words, the low cost business model is based on a strategy by which the business offers low prices in order to instigate demand thus, gaining market share.

What is cost and its types? ›

The two basic types of costs incurred by businesses are fixed and variable. Fixed costs do not vary with output, while variable costs do. Fixed costs are sometimes called overhead costs. They are incurred whether a firm manufactures 100 widgets or 1,000 widgets.

What are important types of cost? ›

  • Direct Costs.
  • Indirect Costs.
  • Fixed Costs.
  • Variable Costs.
  • Operating Costs.
  • Opportunity Costs.
  • Sunk Costs.
  • Controllable Costs.

What is the best costing method? ›

FIFO costing is the most accurate and one of the most widely used and accepted methods for costing.

What are the four 4 main processes of cost management? ›

While cost management overall is a complicated process and a critical project management knowledge area, we can break it down into four processes:
  • Resource planning. ...
  • Cost estimation. ...
  • Cost budget. ...
  • Cost control.
18 Mar 2022

What are the 4 factors of cost? ›

Factor costs include all the costs of the factors of production to produce a given product in an economy. It includes the costs of land, labor, capital and raw material, transportation etc. They are used to produce a given quantity of output in an economy.

What are the three costing methods? ›

The major production costing approaches employed are: Job Costing. Standard Costing. ABC Costing.

What is a scalable cost structure? ›

“Scalable growth is all about pairing exponential revenue growth with incrementally increasing costs. Software companies offer a strong example: Once the development stage is complete, they can infinitely replicate their end product and sell to the customer at little or no additional cost to the business.

How do you control costs? ›

5 cost control methods
  1. Planning the budget properly. One method of cost control that most businesses use when starting a new project is budget management. ...
  2. Monitoring all expenses using checkpoints. ...
  3. Using change control systems. ...
  4. Having time management. ...
  5. Tracking earned value.
13 Apr 2021

How can a company improve its structure? ›

How to Improve Your Organizational Structure
  1. Address your business needs and issues. ...
  2. Make sure that your hierarchy fits with your company's purpose, objectives, and goals.
  3. Build on what is already working.
  4. Leverage the strength of your top talent.
  5. Build ownership and accountability at all levels of the organization.
28 Oct 2020

What are the 4 cost curves? ›

Figure 8.1. 3 presents the four remaining short-run cost curves: marginal cost (MC), average fixed cost (AFC), average variable cost (AVC) and average total cost (AC).

What is cost structure and revenue? ›

The cost structure is one of the building blocks of a business model. It represents how companies spend most of their resources to keep generating demand for their products and services. The cost structure together with revenue streams, help assess the operational scalability of an organization.

What is cost structure in business model canvas? ›

More about Cost Structure

This building block describes the most important costs incurred while operating under a particular business model. Creating and delivering value, maintaining Customer Relationships, and generating revenue all incur costs.

What are the 3 types of services? ›

Services are diversified in three groups; Business services, social services and personal services.

What are cost methods? ›

Product costing methods are used to assign a cost to a manufactured product. The main costing methods available are process costing, job costing, direct costing, and throughput costing. Each of these methods applies to different production and decision environments.

What are cost concepts? ›

Cost analysis is all about the study of the behavior of cost with respect to various production criteria like the scale of operations, prices of the factors of production, size of output, etc. It is all about the financial aspects of production.

What are different elements of cost? ›

Elements of Cost
  • 2.1 1. Direct Material.
  • 2.2 2. Indirect Material.
  • 2.3 3. Direct Labour.
  • 2.4 4. Indirect Labour.
  • 2.5 5. Direct Expenses.
  • 2.6 6. Indirect Expenses.
  • 2.7 7. Overhead.
  • 2.8 8. Factory Overhead.

What are the seven types of cost? ›

Types of Costs
  • 1) Fixed costs. Costs that are unaffected by the quantity of demand. ...
  • 2) Variable costs. Costs associated with a company's output level. ...
  • 3) Operating costs. ...
  • 4) Direct costs. ...
  • 5) Indirect costs. ...
  • 1) Standard Costing. ...
  • 2) Activity-Based Costing. ...
  • 3) Lean Accounting.
18 Dec 2021

What is ABC costing method? ›

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a method of assigning overhead and indirect costs—such as salaries and utilities—to products and services. The ABC system of cost accounting is based on activities, which are considered any event, unit of work, or task with a specific goal.

What are the examples of costs? ›

Fixed costs tend to be costs that are based on time rather than the quantity produced or sold by your business. Examples of fixed costs are rent and lease costs, salaries, utility bills, insurance, and loan repayments. Some kinds of taxes, like business licenses, are also fixed costs.

What is cost and example? ›

cost; costing. : to have a price of : require payment of. each ticket costs one dollar. : to cause one to pay, spend, or lose. mistakes cost him his job.

What are the 5 categories of cost? ›

The 5 costs they cover are:
  • Direct cost.
  • Indirect cost.
  • Fixed cost.
  • Variable cost.
  • Sunk cost.

What is classification of cost? ›

What is Cost Classification? Cost classification involves the separation of a group of expenses into different categories. A classification system is used to bring to management's attention certain costs that are considered more crucial than others, or to engage in financial modeling.

What is a cost concept? ›

Cost is the total of all expenses. It is expressed in monetary terms. The cost concept in economics states that all accounts are recorded in the book of accounts at their purchase price. This includes the cost of acquisition, transportation, and installation and not at its market price.

What is called a cost? ›

In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which case the amount of money expended to acquire it is counted as cost.

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