Activity Based Management Improving Processes and Profitability

Year 2001

ISBN No. 9780566081453

No.of pages 256

Subject Business and Management, Management

Reviews 1

Product - and particularly customer - profitability is a black hole in most managers' understanding of their business. Identifying customer revenue is easy but identifying what they cost - so we can understand whether or not they are profitable - is difficult. In a world in which competition, regulation and the increasing use of the Internet put ever greater pressure on margins it is vitally important to understand both product and customer profitability. This text explains the power of using Activity Based Management (ABM) to increase the profitability of your business. It provides step-by-step guidance on basic principles, comparisons between traditional methods, definitions of processes, activities and cost-drivers as well as details of data collection techniques and implementation steps. The book's detailed examples build up a logical picture of how to obtain the benefits that ABM can deliver. By showing how ABM also supports other profit improvement initiatives such as Business Process Reengineering, Shareholder Value Added and Customer Relationship Management managers will learn how they can use the best possible toolkit to put their business firmly on the road to leaps in profitability.

Table of contents

Part I The context: historical perspective; so what is ABM?; frameworks for measurement and improvement; the ABM framework. Part II ABM in practice: the ABM flow of costs; the basic principles of building models; undertaking an ABM project; integrating improvement approaches. Part III Case studies: how ABM made a difference - lessons from case studies. Part IV Conclusions: pulling it all together.