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The Big Trends Changing Community Development

Harvard Business Review

This is what is going on now in community development. Take the example of child sponsorships, highly popular as a marketing tool for many NGOs. From the private sector, the trend is toward recognizing the business value of community progress. Big trends in business and society tend to march along at a measured pace.

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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

The market caps of just four companies, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, now exceed $3 trillion. Their combined assets of $944 billion are an order of magnitude lower than the combined assets of $7,700 billion of the largest 3,177 companies in 1986, when the aggregate market capitalization reached $3 trillion for the first time.

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How CMOs Can Get CFOs on Their Side

Harvard Business Review

Marketing is in the midst of an ROI revolution. The arrival of advanced analytics and plentiful data have allowed marketers to demonstrate return on investment with a degree of precision that’s never been possible before. To date, however, the reality of marketing analytics has fallen short of the promise.

CFO 8
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The Secrets to Building a Lucky Network

Harvard Business Review

A major customer may default, a promised source of funding may disappear, or the world's markets may sour — any of these can shift your trajectory in an instant. After all, if he were on a desert island without a capital market, the value of his skill goes nearly to zero. Then again, you may be lucky. So, Luck matters.

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Still Many Ways to Skin a Capital Cost

Harvard Business Review

When executives evaluate a potential investment, whether it's to build a new plant, enter a new market, or acquire a company, they weigh its cost against the future cash flows they expect will spring from it. To make sure they're comparing apples to apples, they discount those future cash flows to arrive at their net present value.

CAPM 13
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What Xerox PARC Learned About Executing on Open Innovation

Harvard Business Review

Companies knew how to engage a design firm, license IP, and form joint ventures, but few knew how to truly co-develop innovations with external partners, such as PARC. This approach allows innovators to engage the market sooner and learn faster — critical for successfully commercializing innovation. Net Present Value ).

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Warren Buffett's 2010 Shareholder Letter: What to Expect

Harvard Business Review

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%.

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