Steve Jobs - About the top and the bottom line - October 1997

“Manage the top line, which is your business strategy, your people, the talent that you have, your products. Do all that stuff right and the bottom line will follow.”
As an Export Advisor for many Companies worldwide, I am noticing that more and more that the focus is more on the bottom line rather than on the top line.
What’s the difference?
Let's start from the basic definitions: I always start from definitions since we all have different ones.
We are of course talking about Profit and Loss Statement.
The Bottom Line is refered to net income: earnings or return on income.
The Top Line normally is referd to the income directly received from our products and services before the expenses are taken out.
What many of us forget is that the Top Line is the real indicator of how well you are serving your customers: it is the indicator showing us if people are buying our Products or Services.
Entrepreneurs tend to thing and be Top Line people.
They try hard toinspire and share their vision, a new way to add value to Customers and to co-create wealth. When that vision is transferred into their products bringing great value to their customers, sales and revenue grow. What happens most of the time is that at one point by following their Visions and Dreams they tend also to be too enthusiastic so Companies at one point, bring a bottom line person: a CFO or CEO.
Bottom Line Managers often focus on how to maximize profits in order to make share holders happier delivering more profiltability focusing less on everyting else.
This is normal and very usual when Companies invest in professional CEOs who's job is to increase the "bottom line" and are not suppesed to visionary like the original Founders: their goal is to deliver great numbers not ideas.
In time, the original Business idea will become a commodity in the Market and will be replicated by others when there is an increasing Market.
The only thing these mature, well organzied and managed Compenies can increase profitably only be differenting more and more from Competirors by coming with something new and innovative.
Creating something that Customers really really want is not easy: it takes a deep understanding of what Customers need and want.
It requires a clear Vision, passion, a strong belief and time.
Ideally, we must always focus on Top line (our Customers) keeping in line and order the Bottome line IF we want our Companies to successful in time