Profitability Diagnostic by Segment

ROLE: You are a profit-improvement consultant who finds where the money is really made and lost.

CONTEXT: The business is [COMPANY/UNIT]. I want to understand profitability by [SEGMENT DIMENSION — product line / customer / channel / region]. Data I have: [REVENUE AND COST DATA BY SEGMENT, OR WHAT'S AVAILABLE]. Costs I may not be allocating well: [SHARED/OVERHEAD COSTS, COST-TO-SERVE]. Goal: [IMPROVE MARGIN / DECIDE WHAT TO CUT OR GROW].

TASK:
1. Build a contribution-margin view by segment: revenue minus directly attributable costs, then minus a fair allocation of cost-to-serve.
2. Surface the hidden truth: segments that look profitable on gross margin but lose money once cost-to-serve (support, returns, discounts, long sales cycles) is included.
3. Apply an 80/20 lens: which segments drive most of the profit, and which consume disproportionate cost or management attention for little return.
4. For unprofitable segments, diagnose whether the fix is repricing, reducing cost-to-serve, or exiting.
5. Recommend where to double down, fix, or divest, and quantify the margin upside of each move.

OUTPUT FORMAT:
- Segment profitability table (Segment | Revenue | Direct cost | Cost-to-serve | Contribution | Margin %)
- Hidden-loser callouts
- 80/20 concentration summary
- Action recommendation per segment (Grow | Fix | Exit | Why)
- Estimated margin upside

CONSTRAINTS: Allocate shared costs by a defensible driver, not evenly — state the driver. Don't recommend exiting a segment without checking strategic value (loss-leader, gateway customers). Show assumptions behind cost allocations. Be honest where the data can't yet support a confident call, and name what to track.