Can you increase profitability without increasing sales?
Often, yes. The capacity is usually already there, paid for and trapped. Profit problems are frequently capacity, delivery or operating model problems, not sales problems.
Which of these happened?
- Revenue is flat, but the pipeline looks healthy
- Margins shrink even as revenue grows
- Costs rise faster than output
- Delivery can’t keep up with what sales closes
- Hitting the target would take headcount that doesn’t pencil out
Why it happens
Trapped capacity is value already paid for and not being captured.
It sits in people, process, technology, operations and top talent, often hidden behind the problem an organization thinks it has.
Asana’s Anatomy of Work research found knowledge workers spend 58% of their day on work about work: coordinating, chasing status and switching between tools, rather than the work they were hired to do. That time is already on the payroll.
The stated problem is rarely the actual problem.
What I do
The work is finding the actual constraint, the unused capacity and the economic opportunity, then deciding what should change.
FAQ
What if sales really is the problem?
Then the diagnostic shows it. The goal is the actual constraint, whatever it is.
Where does trapped capacity hide?
In people, process, technology, operations and top talent: rework, handoffs, approvals, and tools that don’t talk to each other.
How fast can we see it?
The Intervention identifies the constraint in five to seven business days.