From a Lean (as in Lean Manufacturing) perspective, I see two mistakes: a focus on reducing costs and increasing use of control to do that.
The problem with a cost-oriented perspective is that is too narrow. For example, suppose you're known for making great hamburgers. If you look at costs, you might say, "Well, beef is our biggest expense, so let's focus on reducing that cost." But the easy ways to do that reduce quantity and/or quality, which also reduce value delivered. Instead the thing to do is to focus on reducing waste or increasing effectiveness, both of which increase value delivered per dollar of expenses.
And the problem with adding control structures as a mechanism is that is slows everything down. You want employees asking, "Am I doing the right thing for the company?" rather than having them pray to the gods of the executive suite every time they need to make a decision.
I think a large part of what made Google so successful is that they approached most problems like engineers rather than MBAs. Looks like there will be opportunities for others to pick up that torch.