On one of the forums (groups) on LinkedIn there has been a very interesting discussion recently about the relationship of productivity to profitability. The relationship is certainly there but it is not necessarily direct or obvious.
One of the reasons that I encourage companies to measure their productivity as well as their profitability is that profitability is a very good measure of how well the company is doing… but productivity is a much better indicator of the future health of the company.
The profitability measure is like taking the temperature; the productivity measure is like a blood test … it tells you far more, if you have the expertise to interpret it.