- What I Learned While Diving in the Maldives About Seeing What Really Matters in CostsThere are trips you remember for what you see on the surface, and others you remember for what you only understand once you go underwater.
This was one of those.
I went to the Maldives over twenty years ago, as part of a promotion for a new flight route when I was working at a travel agency.
We stayed in a simple beachfront cottage, with no air conditioning and very little luxury. Nothing like what you see in today’s Maldives travel brochures.
And maybe I haven’t told you that whenever I can, when the location allows it, I go scuba diving. My father taught me to dive, and it’s something I love to do at any destination with an ocean.
For me, it’s not just about seeing beautiful things. It’s a way of being.
The sound of the sea from within, the currents, the fish, the corals, that feeling of weightlessness. It’s a way to silence the mental noise.
And over time, diving teaches you something very important: what’s essential is almost never in plain sight.
It’s exactly the same with costs in companies.
The same is true for business costs.
- A country’s most valuable assets aren’t always on the surface.If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you might know that when I travel, I have a few non-negotiables.
If I can, I walk through the woods or the jungle, climb a mountain,...
And always, always, I go to the markets and eat where the locals eat.
I’m not so much interested in restaurants as I am in understanding how real life unfolds.
And also, as I’m telling you today, I go scuba diving.
The Maldives, from above, is already spectacular: turquoise water, perfect beaches, almost like an idyllic postcard.
But that’s just the surface.
What you can’t see is the most impressive part.
And on that trip, there was a moment that has stayed with me forever.
I’ve always been more interested in understanding what makes a place what it is than in what you see in photos.
- Waiting in silence for what matters to appearOne day we went to watch the manta rays feed.
There are areas where krill congregate in large numbers, and the manta rays always arrive at roughly the same time.
We descended to the bottom of the sea and stayed there, kneeling, waiting.
You don’t do anything; you just wait.
And then they appear.
And then they appear.
Majestic, enormous, elegant, gliding gracefully over you as if they were flying.
They open their mouths, feed, passing so close that you can almost feel the movement of the water.
And there, beneath the water, you understand something very simple:
The world is so much bigger than your day-to-day life.
That working, rushing around, and putting out fires isn’t everything.
That there are invisible structures, natural rhythms, and balances that can’t be seen from above.
None of that is obvious unless you go deep enough.
- The same thing happens with costs in large companies.Most organizations manage their costs like tourists visiting the Maldives from the shore: focusing on what’s obvious.
In companies, this means:
- Budgets.
- Major expense items.
- Visible variances.
- That’s just the surface.
- But what truly determines a company’s financial health lies beneath.
- In processes that no one reviews because “they’ve always worked.”
- In decisions that are repeated out of habit.
- In structures designed for a context that no longer exists.
- And since they don’t make a fuss, they don’t bother anyone.
- Since they aren’t spectacular, they aren’t prioritized.
- And that’s why they’re harder to see.
- Just like underwater, what’s important doesn’t usually stand out.
- Optimizing costs means looking beneath the sea
When I talk to CEOs and CFOs, I often encounter the same situation.
They believe they already know their costs because they review them every month.
And they certainly have a lot of information and know their numbers well.
But sometimes time robs us of the ability to analyze in depth.
Just like in diving, costs aren’t about just glancing at them.
They’re about observing, understanding the currents, respecting the timing, and knowing where to position yourself.
Because what matters most isn’t usually what stands out the most, but what sustains the system without anyone noticing.
And that requires diving down more than once.
- The schools won’t appear if you make noise.If you move too much, stir up sediment, or don’t respect the environment, the schools won’t appear.
Something similar happens with costs.
When a company enters crisis mode, the first thing it does is:
- cut visible expenses;
- optimize costs without in-depth analysis;
- make quick decisions that have an immediate impact.
- And these actions, if well thought out, can work.
- But often the problem runs deeper than that.
- And that’s what’s often hard to see if you don’t have an outside perspective on the whole picture.
- Not everything that matters responds well to noise.
- Companies that optimize well know how to wait and observe.Organizations that excel at cost optimization aren’t the most reactive ones, but rather the most patient and systematic ones.
They know:
- where to position themselves;
- when to intervene;
- what to let go.
- They understand that some costs are like blankets: you don’t see them every day, but once you understand them, they change your entire perspective on the business.
- And that only happens when you go deep enough.
- But going deep takes time, involves discomfort, and leads to conclusions we sometimes don’t expect.
- It’s much easier to stay up top, look at the crystal-clear water, and say that everything is fine.
- But just like in the Maldives, the most valuable thing wasn’t in the cabin or on the beach.
- It was down below, in silence, waiting for someone to take the time to look.
- Up above there is apparent clarity; down below, true insight.
- If you start going down now, the results will come later.Cost optimization doesn’t produce immediate fireworks.
It provides solidity.
If you start today:
- you gain a better understanding of your actual structure;
- you identify levers that aren’t obvious;
- you make decisions based on sound judgment, not urgency.
- And then the impact comes.
- In a cost optimization project, the first results don’t appear within the first month; they usually take around 100 days, and an entire project lasts about three years to ensure it’s sustainable over time.
- It’s like diving: what matters isn’t the exact moment the manta rays appear, but everything you’ve done beforehand to be in the right place when they arrive.
- Preparation always comes before the result.
- What I took away from the Maldives and am bringing to your companyThat trip reminded me of something I never forget when working with large companies:
Cost optimization isn’t just about looking at the big numbers; it’s about digging deeper to see what truly sustains the system.
Look deeper.
Beyond what is visible.
Beyond the immediate.
Because, just like in the Maldives, the most valuable thing wasn’t in the cabin or on the beach.
It was underneath, in silence, waiting for someone to take the time to look.
If you want to talk about how to dig deeper into your company’s cost structure to see what lies beneath, just drop me a line.
Thanks for reading.
𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘇 𝗱í𝗮.
