Every leader wants growth. But sustainable, profitable growth requires more than ambition. It requires a system.
The Profitable Growth Operating System (PGOS) is built on the 80/20 principle and gives you a repeatable process to cut complexity, sharpen focus, and accelerate results. We’ve implemented this across industries, and the pattern is consistent: when leaders run PGOS with discipline, profits expand, complexity shrinks, and growth becomes predictable.
Here are the four steps:
Step 1: Segment
Clarity comes first. Not all customers or products are equal, and treating them as if they are wastes time, talent, and margin.
Segmentation reveals your “critical few” customers and products that generate the bulk of your profit, and separates them from the many that quietly drain resources.
In our client work, this first step often produces the most signifigant “aha moment”—seeing on one page who truly drives profit and who quietly erodes it. That clarity alone has reshaped entire go-to-market strategies.
Step 2: Simplify
Complexity is the silent killer of profitability. Too many SKUs, bloated service offerings, and overextended teams drag down performance.
Simplification means ruthlessly eliminating what doesn’t create value:
- Pricing up or exiting Quad 4.
- Automating or streamlining low-value accounts.
- Cutting SKUs or services that add cost without return.
When you simplify, you free up resources to reinvest in what matters most.
We’ve seen manufacturers and distributors cut 20–30% of SKUs with no revenue loss—instantly improving margins and operational focus.
Step 3: Zero-Up
Zero-Up is the discipline of rebuilding your business model from scratch. By constructing P&Ls for each quadrant or segment, you see exactly where profit is created and where it’s destroyed.
The insight is striking: Quad 1 alone often delivers 150–200% of current profits, while other areas quietly erode margin. Zero-Up gives you the facts base for tough choices and smarter investments.
For one client, the Zero-Up exercise revealed that the Fort carried the entire business, while Quad 4 was destroying 70% of margin. That realization made it clear where to cut and where to double down.
Step 4: Grow
Only after segmenting, simplifying, and zeroing up have you earned the right to grow.
Growth here isn’t chasing every opportunity, it’s focusing on the ones that align with your Fort: your most profitable customers and products.
This is where you:
- Concentrate top talent.
- Strengthen value streams.
- Apply continuous improvement.
The result is growth that is not just bigger, but better.
We’ve helped CEOs stop chasing “shiny objects” and instead grow Fort accounts, leading to double-digit EBITDA improvement while keeping sales costs flat.
The Bottom Line
PGOS is a cycle. Each pass through Segment → Simplify → Zero-Up → Grow removes waste, sharpens focus, and accelerates momentum. It’s how you move from scattered activity to disciplined execution, from chasing growth to building it sustainably.
And it all starts with the Profitable Growth Accelerator™. PGA is the first 100 days of PGOS—your fast path to clarity, simplification, and measurable financial results. Once installed, the cycle repeats, and your team keeps getting sharper, leaner, and more profitable.
Book a Discovery Call today to start your PGOS journey: segment with clarity, simplify with discipline, zero-up with precision, and grow with confidence. The sooner you start, the sooner you turn complexity into momentum and ambition into profitable results.