In today’s business world, it’s possible for everyone to meet their targets and still have unprofitable groups. One possible key to turning that around is a system called profit mapping.
Sure, the global recession took a big bite out of earnings at plenty of companies, but according to profitability guru and M.I.T. senior lecturer Jonathan L.S. Byrnes, the downturn has masked an even deeper and stickier problem: Most businesses are still operating the same way they did in the Age of Mass Markets, which Byrnes believes ended about 10 years ago.
In Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink: Why 40% of Your Business Is Unprofitable and How to Fix It, he explains how to thrive in what he calls the Age of Precision Markets, an era ushered in by Internet-empowered consumers and fraught with changes “as profound and disruptive as those that occurred when roads were first paved.”