Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink Why 40% of Your Business is Unprofitable, and How to Fix It

Companies around the world turn to MIT's Jonathan Byrnes for one reason: he can figure out where the profit is. He shows them which customers and businesses are cash cows, and which efforts are just a drain on resources. Most astonishingly, in each case he finds that roughly 40 per cent of his client's businesses are unprofitable. We are transitioning from an era of mass markets to the Age of Precision Markets. Before, companies sought to distribute their products as widely as possible using arm's-length customer relationships. Broad metrics like aggregate revenues and costs were adequate. But today companies form different relationships with different sets of customers. Successful businesses create competitive advantages and sustained profitability by developing innovative relationships and new types of value. This is a double-edged sword: if customers are matched with the right relationships, sales and profits soar...but if they are matched poorly, profitability plunges. "Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink" tells you how to rethink your business for maximum profit - what to do, what difficulties you'll encounter, and how to overcome them. This book gives you the roadmap and tools you'll need to be a highly effective manager in a new era of business.

Jonathan L.S. Byrnes is a Senior Lecturer at MIT. He has authored over 100 books, articles, cases, notes, and expert submissions. He wrote a monthly column on managing profitability, "The Bottom Line," in Harvard Business School's e-newsletter. Byrnes also runs a consultancy through which he has advised over 50 major companies and industry associations. He has served on the Advisory Boards of Objectiva Software and Autopart International, and is currently on the Advisory Boards of danoo, OCO, and WaveMark.