A profitability consulting firm finds where margin is created and destroyed inside a business. We do it with one method - time-driven activity-based costing - applied 150+ times since 2010. We are not a strategy house with a costing slide. Costing is the house.
How to choose a profitability consulting firm
Whether you hire us or not, these are the questions that separate firms that move margin from firms that produce decks:
- Do they build a model or write a report? A profitability study is obsolete the month it's delivered. Ask what your team will be running after the engagement ends.
- What method, exactly? "Proprietary frameworks" usually mean allocations by revenue with better fonts. Ask how they assign indirect costs. If the answer isn't driver-based - activities or time equations - the numbers will flatter complexity.
- Will they price the diagnostic as a fixed fee? A firm that can't scope and price its own work predictably is telling you something about its cost discipline.
- Who does the work? Ask who builds the model - partners who've done it 50 times, or analysts doing it the second time.
- Do they plan their own exit? The deliverable should include certifying your team. Permanent dependence is a revenue model, not a service.
We wrote these criteria because we pass them. Not every engagement needs us - a single-product business with simple operations doesn't need TDABC - and we will say so in the scoping call.
One specialty, applied everywhere margin hides
Since 2010 we have built profitability models for manufacturers, hospitals, logistics operators, professional-services firms and distributors. The sectors change; the pattern doesn't: 20% of customers create 150-300% of profit, and the losses are never where the organisation thinks they are. The method that finds them - TDABC time equations over operational data - is the only thing we sell.
- Diagnose: ProfitAudit 360 - 3 weeks, fixed fee, working model + whale curve + margin roadmap;
- Embed: the model goes live in CostCtrl and your team is certified to own it;
- Advise: ongoing scenario reviews for teams that want a sparring partner.
Who is behind the firm
Cost & Profitability Consulting was founded in Porto in 2010 by Miguel Guimarães, who has spent 25+ years building cost and profitability models and leads the development of CostCtrl, our TDABC platform. The team works in English, Portuguese and Spanish, across Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
Results you should expect
We don't promise percentages - anyone who does, before seeing your data, is guessing. What a well-built profitability model reliably delivers:
- The whale curve of your portfolio, with the value-destroying accounts and SKUs named and quantified;
- A margin roadmap of reprice / redesign / release actions, each with its profit impact estimated;
- Numbers the board stops arguing about - one version of cost truth, recalculated nightly;
- A team that can answer "what does this customer really cost us?" in minutes, not months.
Frequently asked questions
What does a profitability consulting firm do?
It identifies where a business creates and destroys margin - by customer, product, service and channel - and turns that visibility into pricing, mix and operational decisions. The good ones leave behind a model your team runs, not a report.
How do you measure success?
By decisions taken and margin moved: contracts repriced, service patterns redesigned, complexity removed, and the model still in monthly use a year later. The diagnostic quantifies each opportunity before you commit to acting on it.
Which industries do you serve?
Manufacturing, healthcare, logistics and distribution, and professional services - anywhere indirect costs are large and complexity varies by customer or product. The method transfers; the time equations are rebuilt per business.
How are you different from the Big 4?
Scope and depth. We do one thing - TDABC profitability modelling - with senior people, fixed fees and a working model as the deliverable. No bench, no land-and-expand, no 200-page deck.
Start with the numbers, not the pitch
The free Profit Check scores your cost-management maturity in 12-15 minutes - then decide if a conversation is worth your time.
