Harvard professors Kaplan and Narayanan documented what I’ve seen in every transformation I’ve ever led: your top 20% of customer-product combinations generate 150 to 300% of your total profits. That’s not a typo. Everything else combined actively destroys the surplus. MIT research confirmed companies can release up to 38% of avoidable costs simply by realigning […] Read More

MIT documented it. McKinsey confirmed it. HBR published it. And yet most manufacturing organizations are still spreading overhead costs uniformly across their portfolios as if every SKU costs the same to produce, store, administer, and quality-control. They don’t. Complexity costs grow exponentially with each new variant added — and traditional accounting makes every one of […] Read More

The research is in, and it’s damning. McKinsey found that complexity costs can silently erase up to 7% of your margins while your accounting system reports nothing wrong. MIT studied a healthcare company and found financial justification for cutting 27% of their product portfolio — translating to $75 million in savings over five years. Your […] Read More

  Here’s the dirty secret nobody in your boardroom will say out loud: your top 20% of customer-product combinations are generating 140% of your profits — and everything else is quietly eating the difference. I’ve seen this exact pattern at Whirlpool, ITW, Berkshire, and JBT Marel. Your portfolio isn’t a strategy — it’s an apology […] Read More