The Cost is a story of a cost engineering consultant named Doug Benson who does his best to help companies understand and improve cost. When Doug arrives at Electronica, the company is on a verge of bankruptcy and hardly even knows why. He must use all his cost engineering knowledge and leadership skills amidst some considerable corporate drama all the while fighting his own personal demons in order to give Electronica a chance. The type of situations that he finds himself in are happening all over the world every day and the results are often dramatic with people losing jobs, stakeholders losing millions of dollars, and communities losing hope. The Cost is not only for those in the cost engineering field. This book is for everyone that is in a manufacturing business. It is for engineers, buyers, sales reps, accountants, operations folks, and business consultants. This book is also for anyone that is leading a business and has the power to employ cost engineering to make their company successful.