Table of Contents

Definition

The ordering principle for [The Five Fundamentals]: Perspective, Product, People, Performance, Profit. When two fundamentals appear to pull in opposite directions inside a single decision, the earlier fundamental in the sequence governs. A Product answer that damages People is wrong before it’s evaluated for Performance or Profit, because People sits downstream of Product in the sequence and cannot be used to override it.

Explanation

This is the piece that keeps [The Five Fundamentals] from becoming five independent checklists an operator can cherry-pick from depending on which one is easiest to satisfy that day. Real decisions rarely respect category boundaries — a staffing call touches People and Performance and Profit at once — and without a resolution rule, an operator under pressure will always reach for whichever fundamental gives them permission to do what they already wanted to do. The sequence removes that discretion. Perspective governs Product; Product governs People; People governs Performance; Performance governs Profit. The order is the argument: you cannot buy your way out of a Perspective problem with a Profit answer, because Profit is downstream of everything that came before it, not a trump card that reaches back upstream.