Operations managers frequently pursue waste elimination in the name of lean management. But a common mistake occurs when managers chase cost-cutting, whereas customers value non-cost operations capabilities – such as flexibility, speed, or quality. This can result in knee-jerk, short-term measures that run at counter purposes to long-term strategic interests. Managers can also get sidetracked from more salient opportunities when cost-cutting blinders steer them to low-hanging, but trivial fruit. In this paper we trace out examples of companies pursuing misplaced priorities, highlight the lessons learned, and present counter examples of waste elimination appropriately applied under a lean management framework.