What Really Makes a Profit Leader a “Profit Leader”?
Each year, you analyze your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs). You use the Ratios to compare your numbers against industry profit leaders—the top 25% in terms of profit as a percent of sales. Then you note discrepancies and come to educated conclusions, like “Our paper costs are out of line with industry averages we need to review our contracts with our vendors” or maybe “Our waste and spoilage figures are higher than average” or “Our sales per factory employee are too low to support our current staffing; we need to increase sales to current customers, develop new market opportunities, or reduce our staffing levels.”
But what does it really take to be more profitable?
Our members wanted to know, so our Center for Economics and Market Research team designed a revealing new survey. It uncovers how profit leaders get successful and what strategies they’re using that you’re not.
The Strategic Management Survey looks deeper at the management processes profit leaders use. It goes beyond asking printers to share their numbers to really discover what makes a profit leader a “profit leader.” If you want to know, just take the survey to find out!
We asked Ed Gleeson, Director, Center for Economics and Market Research, about this new survey and how it will help printers increase their profits.
You just released the new Strategic Management Survey. Can you tell us more about and how it helps printers become more profitable?
When we consult with members about how they can benchmark their financial ratios to the profit leaders, the feedback we often get is that they already know where they have to improve. What they are more interested in is “how” profit leaders earn more per every dollar in sales.
Using the Ratios for financial benchmarking is a great starting point for developing a strategy to become a profit leader and can help you determine some of your strengths and weaknesses. The Strategic Management Survey is designed to help take you to the next level by determining which practices help lead to increased profitability.
