Multi-site professional services firm · 240 people · 6 offices
Concentration read that lifted a services firm from 31% to 39% gross margin
An 80/20 read across clients, services, and initiatives let the firm exit 22% of revenue and raise margin without adding people.
- Disciplines deployed
- SIMPLIFY → GROW
- Measurement window
- 18 months
- Measures reported
- 4
Condition 02 of eight
Complexity is consuming capacity
Busy everywhere, moving nowhere. The vital few are funded at the same rate as the trivial many.
All eight conditionsPresent reality
Revenue was growing while margin stayed flat. Five initiatives ran concurrently, none finishing, and the firm could not say which clients or services actually created value.
Constraint
No contribution view existed below the revenue line, so partners had no defensible basis to decline work — and capacity was allocated to whoever asked first.
Intervention — architecture installed
80/20 concentration read across clients, services, and initiatives; portfolio exit plan; capacity reallocated to the highest-contribution work.
FOUNDATION → SIMPLIFY → LEAD → GROW
Mapped to the operating system
What was architected inside each discipline, and the measured consequence. Disciplines held out of scope are shown with the reason — nothing is implied by omission.
1. FOUNDATION
Build
Held out of scope
Structure and decision rights were already sound; the constraint sat in what the firm chose to do, not in who could decide.
Result: No structural change was required, which is why the engagement began at SIMPLIFY.
FOUNDATION →2. SIMPLIFY
Focus
Loaded in this engagement
An 80/20 concentration read across clients, services and initiatives, with a contribution view built below the revenue line.
Result: Active firm-wide initiatives cut from 5 to 2; 22% of revenue deliberately exited.
SIMPLIFY →3. LEAD
Execute
Held out of scope
Deliberately deferred: the partners already held a working cadence, and adding one before the portfolio narrowed would have institutionalized the wrong work.
Result: The existing partner meeting absorbed the initiative gate without a new forum.
LEAD →4. GROW
Scale
Loaded in this engagement
Capacity reallocated to the highest-contribution accounts and services; qualification criteria written for new work.
Result: Gross margin 31% → 39% (+8 pts); revenue per professional +25%, with no headcount added.
GROW →
ARC™ — the renewal loop around all four
Partners re-run the concentration read every planning cycle and re-gate the initiative list against it.
ARC™ →Measured result — what moved, and by how much
| Measure | Before | After (18 months) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 31% | 39% | +8 pts |
| Revenue concentration in top-quartile accounts | 44% | 71% | +27 pts |
| Active firm-wide initiatives | 5 | 2 | −3 |
| Revenue per professional | $186K | $233K | +25% |
Gross margin
+8 pts
Before31%After39%Standardized against Gross margin — Trailing twelve months, same cost-of-sales definition.
Revenue concentration in top-quartile accounts
+27 pts
Before44%After71%Standardized against Revenue concentration — Top quartile by contribution, defined once and held.
Active firm-wide initiatives
−60%
Before5After2Standardized against Concurrent enterprise initiatives — Counted from the firm portfolio record.
Revenue per professional
+25%
Before$186KAfter$233KStandardized against Revenue per employee — Billable FTE only, identical definition both readings.
22% of revenue was deliberately exited; margin and headcount productivity both rose without adding people.
Transfer — what the client now owns
Partners own the annual 80/20 concentration read and the initiative gate, and run both themselves each planning cycle.
Compass leaves business architects, not dependency.
Client identities, brands, and locations are withheld under confidentiality. Metrics are client-reported and measured over the window shown; they describe those engagements and are not a projection of results for any other enterprise.
Start with your own present reality
Every engagement above began with an honest read of the architecture already producing the results. Score yours, or schedule a conversation.
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