Improving Profit (PDF)

Improving Profit: Using Contribution Metrics to Boost the Bottom Line solves this dilemma. As this book shows, Contribution-Based Activity (CBA) measures focus on two key levers that are fundamental to the operation of any business: financial contribution and units of activity. Knowing how to use these levers gets your company off the treadmill and on your way to stellar profitability. And as the 21 case studies show, CBA is surprisingly easy to apply to businesses of all types and all sizes.

What is "financial contribution"? Simply the amount above and beyond the cost of goods or materials sold that contributes to covering overhead and creating profit. As entrepreneur, business consultant, and professor Keith Cleland shows, few managers actually know the financial contribution their products and services make, nor how to amplify that contribution by  incremental adjustments to one or both levers. As you'll learn, the financial tool Cleland created, TARI (Target Average Rate Index), provides insight into each product's value. You'll not only learn which products are contributing the most to the bottom line, but how to unlock the profit potential in run-of-the-mill products or services. Improving Profit will help you:

• Restore and boost profit levels for your entire operation


• Relate your daily efforts to a transaction's actual profitability


• Focus on the two key performance indicators that can help you identify and solve problems affecting finance and productivity


• Help everyone in the company-from CEO to janitor-understand how their activities help or hinder the company's fortunes


• Make effective financial decisions

If you've ever wondered why your results don't match your hard work, hopes, and dreams, read this book. As the case studies make clear, identifying and applying TARI results in a significant-and often dramatic-boost to the bottom-line.