Category Archives: Profit Improvement

Guess what:  Insurance companies make money.  They know the odds of your electronics device breaking or your house burning down, and they know those odds a lot better than you do.  They make you pay upfront (in premiums) for the …

Profit is the most accurate, most all-encompassing measure of how much our customers value the products and services we deliver and how efficiently we can organize and operate to deliver that value to our customers.  In other words, profits reflect …

Pepsi recently announced an ambitious program to reduce operating costs simultaneous with a marked increase in advertising and marketing.  In doing so, they echoed other smart, successful companies that understand the need to treat strategic expenditures that contribute to growth …

Many of you sell products or services that are complicated in their technical make-up or functionality.  You employ people with highly specialized skills, and the sound of complex jargon fills your meeting rooms and hallways.  That technical culture, of course, …

Twenty-five years ago I consulted to a bank that had 17 lines of business, only one of which, middle market lending, was quite profitable.  They claimed that they “had” to be in the other 16 in order to service customers …

When a product’s future is bleak because of the inexorable march of technology, you have exactly two choices: (1) To slash your spending on it and harvest it profitably, or (2) To remain in denial and fight until the last …

In the business press, it has become fashionable to argue that the productivity gains enjoyed by companies during the past few years have reached their natural limit, and that you’re now in for a period of steady or rising costs. …

Every company has a mix of businesses, representing different products, services, market segments, customer demographics or geographies.  You should also have a full-cost accounting system that accurately assigns sales, marketing, and other overhead costs to each business based on where …

Redbox, the kiosk renter of DVDs, recently raised its price from $1.00 to $1.20, with little apparent impact on demand.  Since their operating income was 14% of sales, that move alone will more than double Redbox’s profits, since the 20% …

This week’s expert prognostications included, among other things: the inevitable demise of the Euro as a common currency, with devastating consequences for Europe; a further decline in US housing prices and a corresponding increase in under-water consumers; and of course …