Passage:

A consulting firm studying turnarounds in mature industries distinguishes between two explanations for why struggling firms rebound. One view holds that recovery comes mainly from cutting costs quickly, because shedding excess capacity restores profitability even if demand stays flat. A second view argues that cost cutting can stabilize a firm temporarily but rarely produces durable recovery unless the firm also changes how it competes, for example by narrowing its product line to segments where it can be meaningfully differentiated. The firm reports that in its dataset, companies that cut costs aggressively but did not change strategic positioning often showed an initial profit uptick followed by renewed decline when rivals matched the cuts. By contrast, companies that paired cost actions with a clearly articulated competitive focus tended to regain pricing power and reduce the frequency of discounting cycles. The firm cautions, however, that the strategic-focus approach is not merely a matter of writing a new plan; it requires abandoning some customers and accepting smaller scale in the short term. The report concludes that cost cutting is usually necessary, but it is not usually sufficient, because recovery depends on changing the basis of competition rather than only changing the expense base.

Which choice best states the central idea of the passage?