Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

This lack of an analytical approach has traditionally formed a barrier between marketing and finance. It doesn’t need to be complicated; in one company, a marketing department saved 20 percent after simply benchmarking the money they were spending on external agencies. They’re going to make ads and do whatever it is they do.

CFO 8

CFO Short-term Long-term Benchmarking 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2011

To make sure they're comparing apples to apples, they discount those future cash flows to arrive at their net present value. That's the finding of a new survey on how financial professionals determine their cost of capital, presented in a separate post on HBR.org today.

CAPM 13

CAPM Cost Discounted Cash Flow Cost of Capital 13

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 18, 2015

In particular, we are interested in how many of their responses correlate with what academic finance knows and what it teaches. ” PE firms typically take three types of value increasing actions — financial engineering, governance engineering, and operational engineering. What PE firms do after they invest.

CAPM 8

CAPM Discounted Cash Flow Company Rate of Return 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Anyone who has had to make the argument for an investment knows the basic tool involved: a Net Present Value (NPV) calculation. The overall value of a foreign investment is equal to the NPV of the expected stream of profits for the life of the investment.

NPV 12

NPV Short-term Discount Politics 12

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

But why compare apples (book value) to oranges (share price and dividends)? Buffett explains that book value is the best proxy for "intrinsic value," the net present value of all estimated future cash flows. Consider that since 1965, Berkshire's book value grew 434,057% and the S&P index grew only 5,430%.

Letter 14

Letter P&L Net Present Value Insurance 14