'How to increase our profitability?' is the school-case example of issue trees. Yet it's hard to find one that is developed more than one or two levels; that's a shame, considering that all organizations face that question periodically.

This remedies it.

You shouldn't use this tree as an exact solution to your profitability problem, because trees are highly situational: one might be very insightful in a situation and not so much in another, even though both situations are about profitability. However, this tree can give you some ideas on how to break costs and revenues so you can find the one that works for you.

The tree breaks down the key questions in ICE (or MECE) branches. While it's formulated as a 'how' key question, the structure is also applicable to a diagnostic situation (e.g. 'Why isn't our profitability higher?').