Praise

From Business Executives and Academics


“Jonathan’s rare combination of academic’s insight and practitioner’s experience has enabled him to create a series of important business innovations that have really worked.”

Harvard— Roy Shapiro
Philip Caldwell Professor of Business Administration and former Senior Associate Dean,
Harvard Business School


“This is a comprehensive guide to improving your company’s profitability. Every manager in your company should read it.”

Tuck School of Business— Vijay Govindarajan
Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business, Tuck School of Business,
and coauthor of
The Other Side of Innovation


“Jonathan Byrnes delivers great news for managers: There is plenty of profit hidden in your company — if you know where to find it.”

Harvard— Sean Silverthorne
editor of
HBS Working Knowledge


“Byrnes wastes no time in getting straight to the point. This fast-paced book is rich with concisely expressed ideas and concrete advice.”

David Maister books— David Maister
author of
Managing the Professional Service Firm and True Professionalism


“Jonathan Byrnes has just advanced the field of management in one evolutionary volume. If profitability is your goal, you can’t afford not to read this book.”

FOX Music— Robert Kraft
President, FOX Music


“Jonathan Byrnes has created a systematic process for analyzing one the most important challenges facing all businesses – profitability. His research offers practical advice that will help organizations unlock their profit potential without costly new initiatives. Companies interested in making more money from their existing operations will benefit from his insights.”

Staples— Ron Sargent
CEO, Staples


“Jonathan has provided very important thought leadership that has helped shape my view of business, the development of Accenture’s business consulting practice, and several cornerstone products of my business intelligence software company. This book is a must read and belongs on every manager’s desk.”

Oco— Bill Copacino
President and CEO of Oco, Inc., and former Group Chief Executive
of Accenture’s Business Consulting Practice


“Jonathan has shown our company that some of the most powerful ideas don’t cost a lot of money or require complex implementations. The concepts of understanding profitability and mining your company for your own best practice are very real and actionable by all levels of the organization.”

MSC— Erik Gershwind
EVP and COO, MSC Industrial Direct


“This is a book for our times. With businesses under ever increasing pressure to perform, Jonathan Byrnes distills 20 years experience teaching corporate executives at MIT to identify key “profit levers” to help enhance a company’s profitability. Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink is an insightful intelligently written book. A must read for any manager.”

United Kingdom— Brooks Newmark
MP


“This is a very important book for managers at companies of all sizes. Jonathan Byrnes has done a masterful job explaining the fifth ‘P,’ Profitability, and how significant it is. This book should be read by both students and managers.”

MIT LGO— Don Rosenfield
Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Management and Director,
Leaders for Global Operations Program, MIT


Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink tells all the managers in your company how to work together to win the best customers and bring in more profit. This book is full of useful ideas that really work.”

Bunzl— Pat Larmon
CEO, Bunzl Distribution USA


“Every level of your organization will benefit from Jonathan Byrnes’s pragmatic approach to enhancing profitability. From strategic planning to program implementation, this book will outline the path to an improved bottom line.”

Cardinal Health— Mark Rosenbaum
Chief Customer Officer, Cardinal Health


“This invaluable book helps uncover business activities that simply don’t yield profitable results. All levels should read this for practical advice on how to assess, analyze, and reinvent strategy and tactics in their poorer performing segments.”

BJ's— Laura Sen
CEO, BJ’s Wholesale Club


“This book demonstrates Jonathan Byrnes’s outstanding capability to get to the core of any business situation, separating the noise from the few real underlying issues. Coupled with actionable insights that drive real bottom-line impact, this makes for powerful reading for any manager striving to maximize profitability.”

GE Capital— Holger Laubenthal
Global VP of Strategy, GE Capital


“Jonathan Byrnes walks his talk, his work is proven and industry-tested. If you want to make more money, there is no greater global authority on profitability management.”

Magnuson Hotels— Thomas Magnuson
CEO, Magnuson Hotels (world’s largest independent hotel group)


“The era of an organization sustaining itself by having its highest performing programs carry lower performing services is over. This is particularly relevant in health care as we face the complex challenges associated with health care reform. That said, Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink should be required reading for leadership pursuing best practice in any industry.”

Nebraska Medical Center— Glenn A. Fosdick
FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Nebraska Medical Center


“Jonathan Byrnes has written a masterpiece with broad applicability to business, organizational dynamics, and interpersonal relations. Each chapter concludes with take-home points called “Things to Think About.” The four sections of the book deal with thinking, selling, operating, and leading for profit. But this book speaks to a constituency that includes those active in nonprofit organizations and in fields not directly connected with business. The text is filled with treasures that will improve the quality of any organization whose leaders take to heart the advice that is provided.”

Harvard Medical School— Samuel Z. Goldhaber
MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Director,
Venous Thromboembolism Research Group, and President,
North American Thrombosis Forum


“Jonathan outlines simple, effective guidelines for identifying and growing profitable business. He clearly describes the need to honestly evaluate the places where it’s just not working, and to take corrective action. His recommendations are practical, have been tested and have delivered positive results.”

CSX— Oscar Munoz
EVP and CFO, CSX


Selected Media Reviews


Inc. Best Books for Business Owners 2010: “Jonathan Byrnes…makes the shrewd observation that no one in companies actually manages profitability. As a result, opportunities go unexplored and inefficiencies are allowed to linger. Worse, the mindless pursuit of new business means companies bring on customers who actually end up costing them. This enormously practical book shows readers how to rethink every part of their companies – from sales to supply chains to service – with an eye toward sweeping up money currently left on the table.”

— Leigh Buchanan
Inc.com, Dec. 8, 2010


“Sure, the global recession took a big bite out of earnings at plenty of companies, but according to profitability guru and MIT senior lecturer Jonathan L.S. Byrnes, the downturn has masked an even deeper problem: Most businesses are still operating the way they did in the Age of Mass Markets….He explains how to thrive in what he calls the Age of Precision Markets, an era ushered in by internet-empowered consumers and fraught with changes ‘as profound and disruptive as those that occurred when roads were first paved.’…No question about it, the changes Byrnes recommends in Islands of Profit add up to a total overhaul of practices and assumptions that have lingered unexamined in some companies for decades, which is why he also throws in some shrewd advice about handling resistance to change.”

— Anne Fisher
CNNMoney/Fortune, Nov. 12, 2010


“In the corporate world, MIT’s Jonathan Byrnes is the go-to man for one reason: he can figure out where the profit is and where it isn’t. Byrnes, a consultant and senior lecturer at MIT has authored more than one hundred books, articles, cases, notes, and expert submissions. For four years he wrote “The Bottom Line,” a highly-regarded Harvard Business School monthly column on managing profitability. In short – he knows what he’s talking about.”

— Gloria McDonough-Taub
CNBC.com, Oct. 22, 2010


“Islands delivers an executive ed program’s worth of insight. Most CEOs know that some kinds of revenue are more profitable than others. Byrnes explains in great detail how to turn that knowledge into action.”

— Leigh Buchanan
Inc.com/magazine, Oct. 1, 2010


“An island destination you can’t miss…Top executives and managers at all levels and in any kind of enterprise should not miss a single word of a business book that deserves wide recognition for addressing the key to survival: making a profit.”

— Soundview BizBook Review of the Week
Feb. 14, 2011


“No business leader can afford to ignore the urgent and sobering recommendations Dr. Jonathan Byrnes offers in his new book ‘Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink.’ Given the shocking prevalence of unprofitable business activity in an exceptionally turbulent marketplace, the advice he offers in ‘Islands of Profit’ can help ensure the profitability, stability, and growth of companies at every level.”

— Bill Dyszel
Author, Microsoft Outlook for Dummies and Contributor, PC Magazine, Sept. 14, 2010


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