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Digital technologies do more than cut costs. They can drive strategic growth, says Wharton’s Christopher Ittner. When companies talk about cost management, their focus typically is on slashing their current expenses. But in today’s digital era, cost management has taken on a new hue: It provides a strategic lever to generate savings that can be invested in driving growth. Christopher Ittner, who chairs the accounting department at Wharton, recently co-authored a paper titled, “Cost Management in the Digital Era,” with Omar Aguilar of Deloitte Consulting. Ittner says: “Using cost management as a strategic lever, as opposed to a defensive response, opens up new opportunities.” In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton, Ittner discusses how companies can leverage digital technologies for cost management in a proactive way. *[This feature was originally published by Knowledge@Wharton, a partner institution of Fair Observer.] The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.