The modern economic system is based on independent economic entities that are involved in various kinds of relations with other entities with one single goal - profit. The desire for it, according to the ideologists of capitalism, is the driving force that should lead us to a state of complete social harmony and universal prosperity. According to supporters of the liberal economy, profit should remain the only factor acting in the economy, that is, the influence of the state should be reduced to zero.
Thus, profit is the most important indicator, both for owners of the enterprise and for consumers of its products, therefore, analysis of the profit of the enterprise - This is one of the fundamental business processes. Under the analysis means checking the total profit for compliance with the planned indicators, as well as determining its main sources and weaknesses of the enterprise.
Profit Analysis allows you to determine how effectively it works from the point of view of itself, as if the enterprise was a thinking living creature. It is on this approach that modern economic science is built. That is, the company's profits should grow by any means - this is considered an absolute good, even if the interests of company employees, consumers of products and even shareholders are violated.
Suppose the following situation. Shareholders are interested in a quick withdrawal of dividends, however, the organization’s profit analysis indicates that such an action will lead to a significant drop in profits in subsequent periods, because the main source of income is a group of goods that requires constant reinvestment of profits in innovation. In this case, the manager’s right thing, from the point of view of modern economic science, will be to reduce payments to shareholders, but to increase profits, despite the fact that the actual owners of the company will remain unhappy with this step.
As for the company's employees, the situation here is even simpler. Quite often, the analysis of enterprise profits indicates that most of the costs that can be easily reduced are related to labor costs. Therefore, in the interests of the company, but not in the interests of its employees, it will reduce wages or increase the volume of work performed. A similar decision should be made (in theory), even if it comes to reducing the salary of the people who make the decisions.
Then, perhaps, the increase in profit defends the interests of buyers? In fact, the analysis of profit from sales is carried out in order to reduce costs and increase revenues, which means that, ceteris paribus, the price should rise, and the cost of production will decrease, which will negatively affect the quality of products. Of course, buyers are not interested in this.
In this case, for what purpose the analysis of the profit of the enterprise, and who is the gainer from its increase, if in the presence of predominantly large corporations on the market, not a single party involved in economic relations has direct benefits from this? First of all, the company itself benefits from profit growth, which sooner or later turns into a self-governing system with its interests consisting in completely capturing all competitors and turning into a monopoly.
The modern economy is similar to the battle of titans – corporations, which are served by people (shareholders, managers, ordinary employees and customers). The extent to which such a situation benefits public welfare is a moot point, and supporters of various economic ideas have been unsuccessfully defending their arguments for several centuries.