Companies spend far too much time and effort on low or no profit products and customers.

That is the summary message from a guest column on the Manufacturers Alliance web site by Mark Fooksman and Sharon Kottke of consulting firm Strategex.

That is nicely illustrated in the "Quadrant" graphic from that column, whch we publish below:

Quadrant Analysis

As can be seen, the upper left "the Fort" quadrant includes top volume products and customers and typically deliver 64% of total sales. But serving that quadant takes just 25% of total effort and overhead.

But that's the same share of effort that is expended for the bottim right CRAP quadrant, which generates just 4% of sales (and surely losses, not profits).

The Fort, the authors say, "is where the bulk of your resources, and effort should be. Every aspect of your organization should focus on The Fort."

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