“If you cut a lot of employees, you might reduce your costs by $1 or $1.50 per barrel,” Hollub said.
Instead of chasing those incremental cost reductions, Hollub put her people to work cutting into the company’s finding and development costs, she said.
“That’s where the real dollars that you spend are,” Hollub said. “That’s what makes the difference between an average company and a high-performing company.”
https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/03/08/occidental-s-ceo-shares-how-she-kept-from-cutting.html