Profit Margin
The percentage of revenue remaining after costs are subtracted. Not what you take in—what you keep. Biology's version is net energy gain: calories consumed minus calories spent hunting.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 15 chapters:
"...tely 19% of global smartphone units (Q1 2025) but captures 46% of all industry revenue - the highest average selling price in the market. While exact profit margins vary by manufacturer, Apple's premium positioning means it captures a substantial majority of smartphone industry profits despite holding only one-fi..."
"...Margin"} In biology, the difference between energy acquired and energy expended is called net energy gain. This is the biological equivalent of profit margin in business. Revenue minus costs. Calories consumed minus calories spent foraging. Darwin's finches during the 1977 Galápagos drought died not beca..."
"...location decision: iPod (2006): - Revenue: $7.68B (39% of Apple's total revenue) - Unit sales: 39M devices - Growth rate: 75% year-over-year - Profit margin: 35%+ iPhone** (pre-launch, 2007): - Revenue: $0 - Unit sales: 0 - Growth rate: N/A - Risk: Could fail, would cannibalize iPod, required massive R..."
"...use of the scarcity signal - abundant Ferraris wouldn't command licensing premium. The total value created by the signal exceeds the cost. Ferrari's profit margins: 17% (vs. 6% for BMW, 4% for Toyota). On $4 billion revenue, this 11-point margin advantage = $440 million in excess profits annually. But the r..."
"...total), (3) Mission preservation matters (company continues advancing environmental practices). By 2024, validation: Revenue $1.7B (13% YoY growth), profit margin stable at 7.1%, donated $120M to Holdfast Collective (funded 47 environmental projects reaching 12 countries)."
And 10 more chapters...
Biological Context
Profit margin is the business equivalent of net energy gain in biology. The Grants' research on Darwin's finches demonstrated this dramatically: the 1977 Galápagos drought killed 85% of medium ground finches. Survivors had 8% deeper beaks on average (9.8mm vs 9.1mm) because they could crack the large seeds that remained. Finches with beak-seed mismatch—those expending more energy foraging than seeds provided—died first. Natural selection optimizes for margin, not gross consumption. Optimal foraging theory formalizes this: organisms should pursue prey where energy return exceeds energy cost.