I can, with almost 100% confidence, assure you that upper management understands this. There is some value that those high-dollar, low-margin transactions provide that isn't realized on the company balance sheet. It could be that your company's board or investors are asleep at the wheel, or haven't looked too closely at the books, or there aren't adequate company controls.

They could be positioning for some sort of exit, or are just trying to juggle the company afloat until they solve what seems to be an unsolvable problem.

If what your saying is really true though, that would be enough to motivate me to look for another job.

It would be much worse if they were just clueless about this.