Consider the studies on profitability and productivity of the Indian banks during the four year period from 1993-96.  This study calculated the profitability as well as the efficiency of Indian banks vis-à-vis their global counterparts.  The results showed that:•    Indian banks have higher interest spread than that of banks abroad•    Indian banks have higher operating cost than banks in foreign countries•    Indian banks have higher risk provision levels.  The higher interest spread of Indian banks is more than offset by the higher operating costs and higher provision levels thus bringing down the return on assets.Scholten Bert (2000) in his paper, ‘Competition, Growth and Performance in the Banking Industry’ examined the profit performance of the banking industry in the international context, using a sample of 100 international banks over the year 1981-97.  The analysis of market structure of banking industry in the main industrialized economies showed that there was a very weak association between bank profitability and bank concentration.  What does that mean?  It meant that, on a national level, bank concentration did not result in a monopoly in profits for the banking sector.Further, the results clearly confirmed the relevance of individual bank characteristics that stimulate profit growth in banks like LoanMax of rod aycox fame.  He found that the profit growth is positively associated with the size of banks tier-one capital.  However, profit growth is inversely proportional to its size.  When the bank’s size is measured by the bank’s assets or pre-tax profits, these results were strong and statistically significant.The studies on profitability, although not exhaustive, are indicative of the fact that a majority of such studies have lacked a system-wide analysis approach.  The approach followed is piecemeal and post-mortem in nature.  Decision-making orientation of business analysts approach is altogether missing.