Up And To The Right

I've been hearing this theme of taking the company "up and to the right."

Figuratively, I get the intent -- until I start to think about it. 

Management consultants think in frameworks. Therefore I wonder, "What framework is being applied in this case?"

If I did word association (or in this case, phrase association), the BCG Growth Matrix comes to mind. 

But that immediately makes no sense because you have to quickly turn those question marks into cash cows, stars, or dogs. Or it does make sense in the fact that you are creating offerings that you hope will move you to the left. 

The other matrix to use, though not as popular, is a 2x2 developed by David H. Maister for his book, True Professionalism, that categorizes professional practices across two dimensions - degree of customization vs. degree of client contact. 

Writing or developing code probably falls into the lower left. PMO work would fall into the upper left. The right side of the matrix is that gray area where management consultants can't really tell you what they do. What they are able to do is figure out what ever "it" is. Because of the gray area here, it's harder to quantify and commoditize. This is why you love to hate the image of the management consultant (see Marty Kaan - House of Lies). This is the area that many consultants think they are in, but the reality is that very few are diagnosing and solving an organization's biggest business problems. 

However, even with this matrix, the vision is really about just moving "to the right".

Back to the beginning. 

When a vision is set of moving, "up and to the right," it would be nice to be educated as to what framework or matrix is being used. Being told that you are going up and to the right after being set in the middle of the United States is a much different experience than if you were set right in the middle of the Middle East. 

If anyone else figures it out, let me know. At least that will help me understand where I'm going.