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The Complexity of Business Communication

CoachStation

Compare Michael Porter’s competitive advantage definition: “Competitive advantage, sustainable or not, exists when a company makes economic rents, that is, their earnings exceed their costs (including cost of capital).” Is change communication in your organisation more like the first example or the second?

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Still Many Ways to Skin a Capital Cost

Harvard Business Review

It's the opening paragraph of a Harvard Business Review article called "What's Your Real Cost of Capital?" They believed managers needed a better way to come up with a number to represent their cost of capital, and that's what they were presenting. That paragraph isn't my own writing. by James J. McNulty, Tony D.

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Why Sit on All that Cash? Firms Uncertain on Cost of Capital

Harvard Business Review

Many are deeply uncertain about which initiatives they should fund — and one root of this indecision is a general lack of confidence in the cost of capital projections they are using to make the call. We find that 55 percent of respondents are convinced their cost of capital estimates are off by more than 50 basis points.

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How Banks Can Compete Against an Army of Fintech Startups

Harvard Business Review

In a recent survey from Javelin Research, 56% of SMEs indicated a desire for better digital banking tools. Banks’ cost of capital is typically 50 basis points or less. These low-cost and reliable sources of funds are from taxpayer-insured deposits and the Federal Reserve’s discount window.

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6 Digital Strategies, and Why Some Work Better than Others

Harvard Business Review

Based on our recent worldwide survey of 2,000 incumbent companies across all major industries and countries, we estimate that the average return on incumbent digital initiatives is below 10% — barely above the cost of capital.

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What Private Equity Investors Think They Do for the Companies They Buy

Harvard Business Review

In a survey of 79 PE firms managing more than $750 billion in capital, we provide granular information on PE managers’ practices and how firms’ strategies relate to the characteristics of their founders. Rather, they rely on internal rates of return and multiples of invested capital.

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Get the Strategy You Need — Now

Harvard Business Review

Unfortunately, nearly eight in ten executives surveyed by McKinsey describe the strategic-planning processes at their companies as more geared to confirming existing hypothesis than to testing new ones. Good analysis in the hands of smart managers does not automatically yield great strategy. There are techniques to fix that problem.