Cost control has to start at the very top.

from BUSINESS LINE, February 24, 2011 In a section on 'company assets,' in ' The Buck Stops Here' ( Penguin), author Ashutosh Garg rues that both as a professional manager and as an entrepreneur he has seen company assets generally being misused.

In his view, a simple antidote to the widespread malaise of misuse of company-owned vehicles is to build the cost of vehicle or the perquisite into the total package of employees rather than provide them with an office car or a two-wheeler. Having implemented such a policy in his own company, Garg reports that the effects are visible, thus: "Our office driveway is full of clean, shining and well-maintained staff-owned vehicles, in contrast to dirty run-down and battered company-owned delivery vans." The author mentions further examples of misuse, such as store air- conditioners damaged within a few months of installation, computer keyboards with tea or coffee spilt on them, laptops damaged beyond repair in less than a few …