Can you share an example of a successful rightsizing initiative you led? What resistance did you encounter from the business and your own teams, and how did the cost savings compared to any impact on business operations, service delivery, or team productivity?

Engage those who challenge you, such as the CFO, and make them part of the solution. Traditional procurement is upended in the cloud, where engineers can spend money with a click. Work with procurement and finance to build frameworks that balance control with agility.

Some groups, like our data warehouse and BI team, found the transition difficult. Costs were rising dramatically, and they were unaware of their growth. We started monitoring actual usage and adjusted schedules. Including cost-saving goals in performance reviews made individuals more aware of their impact. Changing the mindset of key influencers helped shift the entire team.

One example is shutting down virtual desktops at night and automating their startup in the morning. Initially, there was resistance from the finance team, but we demonstrated that reports did not need to run overnight. If someone logs in at night, it takes five minutes to spin up. Changing the culture and mindset was the hardest part. Technology was the easy part.