The foundations of profitability -- 1. Why true profit is like unmined gold -- 2. Developing a low center of gravity -- 3. Creating your hydraulic profit jack -- Profitability category #1: E equals MC squared -- 4. Creating growth through your best customers -- 5. Eliminating zero-margin and low-margin products and services -- 6. Transitioning your worst customers to high-margin products and services -- 7. Implementing customer retention strategies on the FrontLines -- Profitability category #2: Maximizing power at the point of attack -- 8. Empowering and engaging different types of employees to grow the business -- 9. The champagne pyramid concept -- 10. Setting the right expectations and measuring performance -- 11. Determining your appropriate turnover rate -- Profitability category #3: Doing the high jump, not the limbo -- 12. Increasing the quality of your ideas -- 13. Are you innovative or opportunistic? -- 14. Identifying your one priority -- 15. Prioritizing to maximize the financial impact of your best ideas -- Profitability category #4: Taking procurement out of the basement -- 16. Turning procurement operations into a revenue generator -- 17. Managing supplier relationships and service levels effectively to increase profits -- Profitability category #5: The Tao of cost minimization -- 18. Minimizing theft, absenteeism, and obsolescence in your organization -- Profitability category #6: Supply chain optimization -- 19. Profiting from returns, defects, and waste -- 20. Leveraging your supply chain to generate profits -- 21. Reducing the number of touch points in your supply chain -- 22. Lowering inventory by anticipating demand -- Profitability category #7: Operational excellence -- 23. Finding profit increases in areas you don't normally look -- 24. Under-promising and not over-delivering -- 25. Operational transparency -- 26. Leveraging technology to achieve your one priority -- 27. On boarding new customers more quickly -- Profitability category #8: Your crystal ball -- 28. Shining up your crystal ball -- Final thoughts: pursuing excellence, not perfection -- Index.