The July issue of Business 2.0 (not yet on the web) has an article on how Gamal Aziz of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is reinventing the property for maximum profitability. I think his idea on working backward was worth the price of my B2.0 subscription for the month...

Aziz's secret is a counterintuitive management practice - nicknamed "working backward" - that he invented on his arrival at the Grand. The strategy breaks down an operation into constituent parts, then calculates the maximum potential revenue that each business or space could generate in a perfect world - that is, if every customer spent the most the market could bear and if traffic reached its physical limits. Aziz then subtracts the actual sales from the hypothetical number and calls the difference a loss, even if the venue is making money.

His strategy is paying off. His projects featured in the magazine have all seen revenue improvements ranging from a 40% increase all the way to a 786% increase.

Think of the implications of applying this to your website properties, including RSS feeds, email newsletters and other potential revenue generating real estate. Is the real estate on your site generating max revenue? If you were to break down each section and extrapolate it's full potential from ideal figures, how much money are you leaving on the table?

excellent post!

Sometimes I think I'm running my business completely backwards. LOL

Shannon