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The Big Trends Changing Community Development

Harvard Business Review

This is what is going on now in community development. From the private sector, the trend is toward recognizing the business value of community progress. Meanwhile, a second trend is the growing eagerness of the private sector to play a genuine and substantial role in community development.

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Why Some Digital Companies Should Delay Profitability for as Long as They Can

Harvard Business Review

For years, AWS has invested in driving developer and company adoption of its platform by driving down prices and introducing low cost features to make developer’s lives easier. That ecosystem investment reinforces the value proposition and drives more developer adoption. The Refresher: Net Present Value.

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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

Business students have traditionally considered net present value, payback period, and hurdle rates as necessary tools to determine which project to select. Some of these ideas contradict traditional financial thinking whereas others seem highly controversial or pessimistic.

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Match Your Innovation Process to the Results You Want

Harvard Business Review

It tends to be short-term, uses familiar (traditional) metrics and development systems like Stage Gate. When forced to present familiar metrics for truly out-of-the-box "beginning" ideas, work teams develop what our friend Jay Paap calls "Imaginary Numbers." So let's talk about incremental. The risks-rewards are relatively low.

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Why You Should Crowd-Source Your Toughest Investment Decisions

Harvard Business Review

Most companies – including the movie studios in Hollywood – over-rely on basic tools like discounted cash flow and net present value. But it is possible to significantly improve your odds by understanding which decision-support tools work best for which decisions.

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The Secrets to Building a Lucky Network

Harvard Business Review

The net present value and strategic fit of a given relationship or initial introduction in one's Lucky Network might be foggy at best, but unintended benefits often manifest for those who embrace relationships with openness. The Lucky are humble. They are intellectually curious. They are optimistic.

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How to Improve Your Finance Skills (Even If You Hate Numbers)

Harvard Business Review

But having a grasp of terms like EBITDA and net present value are important no matter where you sit on the org chart. The Refresher: Net Present Value. ” The goal is to develop an understanding of how your day-to-day actions help your employer to “drive revenue or mitigate costs,” he says.