article thumbnail

The Challenge Of Achieving Sustained Growth - Take Two

Six Disciplines

over the 10 years ending in 2008 and earn back their cost of capital. As reported in the Harvard Business Review's Daily Stat , the consulting group Bain's updated global database of Sustained Value Creators found only 12% of companies worldwide managed to grow profits and revenues more than 5.5%

article thumbnail

We Can’t Study Short-Termism Without the Right Metrics

Harvard Business Review

The McKinsey Global Institute, in conjunction with FCLT Global, recently released research stating that long-term-oriented companies perform better than those that focus on short-term results. FCLT and McKinsey rely on readily available and machine-readable accounting data to measure myopia. What would better measures be?

EPS 9
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

CEOs Don’t Care Enough About Capital Allocation

Harvard Business Review

Unless your company’s return on capital exceeds its cost of capital, no amount of revenue growth can create value. For the many firms whose cost of capital and return on capital are roughly equal, in fact, the only path to value creation is to increase return on capital.

CEO 8
article thumbnail

Even for Companies, the U.S. Is Split Between Haves and Have-Nots

Harvard Business Review

Companies in the top one-fifth of profitability earn, in aggregate, about 70 times more economic profit (accounting profit less cost of capital) than those in the middle three-fifths combined, according to McKinsey’s database of 3,000 large, publicly listed, nonfinancial U.S. Sound familiar? There are many.

ROIC 8
article thumbnail

Get the Strategy You Need — Now

Harvard Business Review

Though both statements may sound extreme, they are the clear implication of new McKinsey research on how companies create value and allocate resources. A second new McKinsey study delves into the question of what executives are doing about their strategic shortfall, and concludes that most are not doing enough. Execute decisively.

article thumbnail

What’s Driving Superstar Companies, Industries, and Cities

Harvard Business Review

In our recent research at the McKinsey Global Institute, we examined the superstar phenomenon across firms, as well as sectors and cities. To analyze the superstar dynamics of firms, our metric was economic profit, a measure of a firm’s profit above and beyond opportunity cost. (To Wider dynamics may be at play.

article thumbnail

4 Ways Leaders Can Get More from Their Company’s Innovation Efforts

Harvard Business Review

A recent McKinsey report found that while 84% of corporate executives think innovation is key to achieving growth objectives, only 6% are satisfied with the innovation performance of their firm. For any business to succeed over the long term, it must earn a return that exceeds its cost of capital. That’s quite a mismatch.