01
See the economic truth
Rank customers, products, markets, and activities by contribution margin. Averages hide the truth; quartiles reveal it.
Top 25% typically generate the majority of profit.
SIMPLIFY™ — The Way to Wealth
Wealth is what remains after complexity is removed.
The Way to Wealth is the Compass path from economic truth to enterprise value. It is not a cost program. It is the disciplined sequence that converts focus into capacity, capacity into growth, and growth into a business worth more than the sum of its revenue.
Most businesses pursue wealth by adding — more customers, more products, more markets, more activity. Compass pursues it by concentrating. When the enterprise is redesigned around the work that actually creates value, profit stops being an accident of volume and becomes a designed outcome.
The Six Stages
02
Price and cost to serve honestly
Load the full cost of complexity — customization, expedites, returns, service effort — onto the work that causes it.
Unprofitable volume stops masquerading as growth.
03
Concentrate on the vital few
Invest in AA. Simplify AB. Maintain BA. Restructure or exit BB. Resource allocation becomes a decision, not a default.
Leadership attention follows economic value.
04
Release capacity
Eliminate, standardize, automate, or outsource low-value activity. Capacity is the first dividend of simplification.
Hours, cash, and management bandwidth returned.
05
Reinvest into growth
Redeploy released capacity into the customers, capabilities, and innovation that earn the highest return.
Growth funded from within, not from added cost.
06
Compound it
Run the rhythm. Each cycle raises margin quality, lowers complexity, and increases the multiple the enterprise earns.
Profit becomes durable enterprise value.
Run Your Own Numbers
The Way to Wealth Model
Customers → Revenue → Profit. Change any number; every result recalculates.
| Driver | CurrentReality today | ImprovementNext 12 months | DreamThe second curve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads per periodQualified opportunities entering the funnel | |||
| Effectiveness / conversionShare of leads that become customers | % | % | % |
| Average $ saleRevenue per transaction | $ | $ | $ |
| Come-back visits per periodRepeat purchases per customer | |||
| COGS per saleDirect cost of delivering one sale | $ | $ | $ |
| Operational costsFixed cost of running the period | $ | $ | $ |
| Customers | 1 | 2 | 20 |
| Revenue | $7,500 | $31,500 | $420,000 |
| Cost of goods sold | $1,500 | $12,000 | $120,000 |
| Gross profit | $6,000 | $19,500 | $300,000 |
| Net profit | ($34,000) | ($50,500) | $230,000 |
| Revenue per employee | $750 | $3,150 | $42,000 |
| Net income per employee | ($3,400) | ($5,050) | $23,000 |
Productivity per person is the truest test of a system. Revenue and net income per employee rise only when the work itself is redesigned.
Build Your Real Quad & Quartile
Build your own read
Quad & Quartile Builder
Averages hide the truth. Choose the lens you want the truth on, enter what each line earns and how hard it is to serve, and the analysis returns the quartiles, the quad, and the moves in order. Nothing is stored unless you ask us to email it.
Step 1 — Choose the lens
Which customers create the profit, and which consume it?
Complexity drivers on this lens
- Customization and special requests
- Order frequency and variability
- Logistics and delivery demands
- Returns, issues and rework
- Sales and service effort
Step 2 — Choose the measure to rank on
Contribution margin. Revenue less every cost that moves with the line — direct cost plus the variable cost to sell, serve and support it. It is the truest read of what the line contributes to the enterprise.
Key — what each measure means
- Revenue
- Total sales billed for the line in the period, before any cost is taken out. It shows size, not worth.
- Units
- Volume for the line — units shipped, orders, transactions or jobs. It shows how much work the line creates.
- Profitability
- Contribution margin as a percentage of revenue. It shows how much of every dollar sold the line actually keeps.
- Gross margin
- Revenue less the direct cost of making or delivering the line (materials, labor, freight). It shows what the line earns before serving it.
- Contribution margin
- Revenue less every cost that moves with the line — direct cost plus the variable cost to sell, serve and support it. It is the truest read of what the line contributes to the enterprise.
- Effort to serve
- A 0–25 score for how much work, handling and management time the line consumes across the complexity drivers on this lens. It is the second axis of the quad.
Step 3 — Enter the lines
Enter what you have. Ranking uses contribution margin; the other columns still show in the read, the PDF and the CSV.
| Customer | Revenue | Units | Gross margin | Contribution margin | Effort to serve (0–25) | Read | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | Add numbers | ||||||
0 | Add numbers | ||||||
0 | Add numbers | ||||||
0 | Add numbers |
0 of 4 lines scored — four or more gives a real quartile read
Step 4 — The read
Add at least four customers with revenue and contribution margin to see the read.
- Revenue
- $0
- Units
- 0
- Gross margin
- $0
- Contribution margin
- $0
- Top-quartile share
- 0%
- Margin drag
- $0
Ranked by contribution margin — blended profitability —
Quartile analysis — where the value is
| Quartile | Lines | Revenue | Units | Gross margin | Contribution | % of contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 0 | $0 | 0 | $0 | $0 | 0% |
| Q2 | 0 | $0 | 0 | $0 | $0 | 0% |
| Q3 | 0 | $0 | 0 | $0 | $0 | 0% |
| Q4 | 0 | $0 | 0 | $0 | $0 | 0% |
Quad analysis — what to do about it
AAInvest / Scale
High value · Low complexity
Profitable and easy to serve. Concentrate attention and capital here.
0 lines · $0 · 0% of margin
None at this rating
ABSimplify
High value · High complexity
Profitable but expensive to serve. Keep it and standardize the work around it.
0 lines · $0 · 0% of margin
None at this rating
BAMaintain
Low value · Low complexity
Thin but cheap to serve. Maintain with efficiency, not investment.
0 lines · $0 · 0% of margin
None at this rating
BBRestructure / Exit
Low value · High complexity
Consumes margin and capacity. Reprice, restructure or release it.
0 lines · $0 · 0% of margin
None at this rating
Step 5 — Take it with you
Page size
210 × 297 mm — standard outside North America. Applies to every PDF you download here and to printing from your browser.
Want the read pressure-tested against your architecture? Schedule a conversation.
This analysis reflects the figures you enter. It is an architectural read for decision-making — not an audit, valuation, or accounting opinion.
What Actually Creates the Wealth
Five value levers
- Margin quality
- Mix shifts toward high-value, low-complexity work.
- Cash conversion
- Less inventory, rework, and expedite spend to fund.
- Capacity
- Released hours reinvested rather than replaced with headcount.
- Risk
- Fewer single-source, low-return dependencies to defend.
- Multiple
- Predictable, repeatable performance earns a higher valuation.
Start with the numbers you already have
The Way to Wealth begins with a quartile analysis and a quad. Rank the portfolio by contribution margin, score the complexity, and decide what to invest in, simplify, maintain, or exit.