Margin Down: Price Problem or Mix Problem?
Use a decision walk to separate margin deterioration caused by price from margin deterioration caused by mix.
Margin pressure The gross-margin bridge is red, and two leadership teams are already telling mutually exclusive stories about why. If finance mislabels price as mix, or mix as price, the commercial response will target the wrong lever. Bridge logic Decompose before you prescribe. Price, mix, and cost-to-serve should be tested in sequence so the response follows the actual cause. Weak shortcut Use discount anecdotes as proof without checking what actually sold. The response becomes surgical instead of political. Variance analysis should isolate the economic mechanism before assigning accountability. Start with comparability Step 1 What should finance test first in this…
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