Harvard Business Review

MAY 6, 2016

As earnings goals became harder to hit with internal growth, the company used most of its money for share buybacks to achieve its three-year earnings-per-share goals. Facing headwinds to growth, executives delayed R&D and capital investments to hit three-year free-cash-flow goals.

Long-term 8

Long-term Incentives Short-term Management 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2011

Then I'd spend the day putting together a fix plan for fixing an issue with a product shipment or the General Motors account. Words like "productivity," "efficiency," and "innovation" are defined by goal posts of our own creation: number of units shipped, revenue and profit, EPS and shareholder return.

EPS 15

EPS Strategy Reference Execution 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

” The blueprint included the company’s purpose, vision, values, and strategic goals, and fits on a single page. Once in place, it both generates commitment of employees and customers and puts the short term and the quarter in context as the immediate building blocks to longer-term goals.

CEO 9

CEO Short-term Long-term EPS 9

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Crucially, he concludes that our unconscious mental frames “shape the goals we seek, the plans we make, the way we act, and what counts as a good or bad outcome of our actions.” , has shown how the way we frame such challenges shapes our reasoning and priorities much more than most of us recognize.

Morale 8

Morale EPS Supply Chain Politics 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

The crux of the issue is how to allow companies to balance the long-term goal of making productive investments without getting bogged down by short-term quarterly pressures. Those discussions need to become more common, regardless of whether companies report quarterly or twice a year.

Report 8

Report Intangible Assets Short-term EPS 8