Your company can be growing, profitable—and becoming less competitive.

More revenue should not require the company to become progressively more expensive to run. Yet some businesses grow while consuming more of their own capacity just to operate.

Structural Drag — Why Heavy Companies Lose, and How to Find the Weight Before the Market Does examines the operating arrangements that make capable businesses unnecessarily heavy. Departments can perform well, financial statements can remain acceptable, and leaders can make reasonable decisions— while an increasing share of the company's effort is consumed between functions, systems, commitments and decision rights.

The strategic consequence extends beyond inefficiency. A heavier company has less capacity to respond to opportunity, competitive pressure or acquisition. A lighter competitor may not have better people or more capital. It may simply convert more of what it already pays for into usable performance.

The executive question: How much of your company's effort is being consumed by the way the business is arranged—and how would you establish the cause before funding another remedy?

What you'll take from the paper: The difference between operating symptoms and structural causes; why improving one function may not improve the company; how to distinguish expense, consumed capacity and contribution not earned; and what operating dependencies may mean for future enterprise value.