Go back to basics - Know your costs

I have been following the whole Big Three Auto for last few weeks closely. After listening to the congressional hearings and the sound bytes after senate rejected the bridge loan proposal, I am really convinced about one thing - most of the major manufacturing firms (automakers included) do not know their real product costs. Most of the large product firms don't have a half decent Activity Based Costing system and the others don't know how to implement it correctly. I believe the reason for that is that the top management's focus remains top line growth and investment of resources and time for implementing such systems is not considered a priority. The action to reduce costs is forced by international competition and usually includes wholesale measures - like moving manufacturing to India or China. They can't think of doing things beyond that point. The companies having complex product portfolios do not really know what products they are making or losing money on and why. I hope this recession forces firms to go back to basics.