- Your Company’s Special Calendar: Why Managing Costs Is Managing Time.
Earlier this year, I told you that I don’t have a regular calendar on my fridge—I have a memento mori. It’s a calendar that doesn’t tell you what day it is. It reminds you of something much more uncomfortable: that your time is finite. Every week that passes, you cross it off. And you don’t cross off “what you’ve lived,” but what will never return. And, without realizing it, it taught me a lot about business cost management.
If you stop to think about it, your company also has its own silent calendar. Weeks when it grows. Weeks when it holds steady. And weeks when it survives rather than moves forward. But above all, it has a limited window to react—when costs rise, when demand shifts, when the supply chain gets bogged down. Reaction time is finite, and you must know how to use it well. The memento mori raises a question every company should ask: How long can you afford to keep managing your costs the way you have been?
Although 2025 has been a year of growth for many companies, it has also been accompanied by significant friction. Finance leaders are saying that material and logistics costs have been the hardest and most unexpected blows of the past year. The supply chain and the availability of qualified personnel have been the main obstacles in 2025 and will continue to be so in 2026. Even in growth scenarios, short-term profitability is now the top concern, while technology and sustainability are beginning to dominate the strategic agenda.
The day I understood the true value of memento mori was when I stopped seeing it as an existential reminder and started seeing it as a management system. Applied to business: if you assume that reaction time is finite, you stop putting off uncomfortable decisions. Three questions any management team should ask: What important decision am I still putting off because “there’s still time”? What am I holding onto that no longer makes sense? What is costing me more than it actually brings me?
40% of companies have prioritized cost optimization as one of their three strategic pillars for 2025. The strongest trend is: modernize to grow. Gain visibility into inventory. Automate processes. Reduce friction that currently consumes time and margin without anyone noticing. At its core, cost optimization isn’t a financial obsession—it’s a very concrete way to manage time strategically. Just like in a memento mori.
Before the next operating cycle begins, ask yourself three questions: Which area of your business requires immediate attention to protect your margin? What initiatives could you fund simply by optimizing what you already have? What are you putting off that, if you started it now, would change the health of your company in 12 months?
Memento mori doesn’t teach you to fear the end. It teaches you to do something useful with the present. If you want to start the year with less noise, more focus, and a realistic plan to optimize costs, let’s talk. Thank you for reading. Feliz día.
