Take No Prisoners: A No-Holds-Barred Approach to Corporate Excellence

Chapter Ten. Analyzing the Profit and Loss Statement

It’s no surprise that a part of the process of increasing corporate profitability is a complete examination of the profit and loss statement (P&L) to determine what costs can be reduced or eliminated. However, a turnaround expert tends to look at things a different way. I have already discussed how to increase the revenues portion of the P&L by:

• Identifying strategic markets through the “slice and dice” analysis method

• Increasing margins on existing business through niche pricing

• Getting out of unprofitable market sectors and shedding unprofitable customers

Now the time has come to examine the rest of the P&L in regard to the expenses beyond cost of goods sold. These also reduce profitability and ...