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A Refresher on Cost of Capital

Harvard Business Review

You’ve got an idea for a new product line, a way to revamp your inventory management system, or a piece of equipment that will make your work easier. You’ll likely be asked to show that the return on the investment will be better than your company’s cost of capital. What is the cost of capital?

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Entrepreneurship Suffers When Well-Paid Jobs Are Plentiful

The Horizons Tracker

The author believes that while lower costs of capital would certainly help raise the entrepreneurship rate, it would be most beneficial to entrepreneurs with lower skills. Instead, you may want to ask how to make existing entrepreneurs more productive.”. It’s not a pessimism shared by the Wharton academic himself.

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A Refresher on Marketing ROI

Harvard Business Review

Companies spend a lot on marketing communications. And more fundamentally, does marketing actually work? Marketing ROI analysis can help answer those questions. What is Marketing ROI, and How Do Companies Use It? Avery explains that it is also referred to by its acronym, MROI, or as return on marketing investment (ROMI).

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The Rise of FinTech in Supply Chains

Harvard Business Review

The use of FinTechs allows suppliers to access funding at the multinationals firm’s lower cost of capital.). The supplier gives the buying firm a discount on the invoice amount at the buyer’s lower cost of capital. This improved working capital can be used to fund growth in new markets.

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Strong Dollar, Weak Thinking

Harvard Business Review

The standard concern is that the high US dollar hurts America’s manufacturing cost position because US production costs are inflated by the dollar’s appreciation. The way to do that is to build market share in international markets at a level of profitability that is higher than the cost of capital.

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The Case for Investing More in People

Harvard Business Review

Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything,” wrote Paul Krugman more than 20 years ago. Productivity in most developed economies has been anemic. During much of this time, it has been shareholders, not workers, who have reaped the benefits of higher productivity.

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What U.S. CEOs Should Do with the Money from Corporate Tax Cuts

Harvard Business Review

The cost of capital is at historic lows, averaging below 6% for most large U.S. Indeed, for most companies, the value of accelerating growth greatly exceeds the value of returning capital to shareholders. For example, well-managed consolidators such as Dell Technologies are doing well in this market.