First Friday Book Synopsis

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Tom Stewart is Booz & Company’s Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer. In a recent email update, he asks several intriguing questions: Are there CEOs anywhere in the world who want their companies to become less innovative? Is anyone calling on employees to do a better job of thinking inside the box?

Innovation 114

Innovation Globalization CEO Company 114

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

It boasted rapid economic growth, abundant natural resources, and a large (and increasingly wealthy) market of 200 million consumers. Each requires leaders to pay particular attention to nuances related to the Brazilian market. times their earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). times EBITDA.

Strategy 8

Strategy Depreciation EBITDA Price 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 29, 2012

But what about the more strategic risk areas, such as those related to emerging market entry or acquisition growth strategies? They clearly generate higher growth in revenue, EBITDA, and EBITDA/EV. Companies in the top 20% of risk maturity generated three times the level of EBITDA as those in the bottom 20%.

Risk Management 14

Risk Management Maturity EBITDA Management 14

Strategy Driven

MARCH 18, 2011

In The Essential Advantage : How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy , Booz & Company’s Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi maintain that success in any market accrues to firms with a coherence premium – a tight match between their strategic direction and the capabilities that make them unique. Let’s go after it.”

Resources 52

Resources Industry System Strategy 52

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2017

What if concentrated market power of a few companies in an industry has made these companies more profitable than usual? For instance, Home Depot, despite a painful housing market–led recession, retained most of its hourly workers and their benefits in 2008–2009. Are all share repurchases myopic?

EPS 9

EPS Metrics Depreciation Short-term 9

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 11, 2012

Nokia is still struggling to find a future beyond going head to head with the Android and iPhone platforms in the fiercely competitive smart phone market. The result: the Nook debuted in 2009 and leapfrogged the Kindle in key features, capturing nearly a third of the e-reader market and probably saving the company's life.

EBITDA 8

EBITDA How To Crisis Depreciation 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 21, 2014

If marketers want to produce content, they need to think like publishers. After all, content isn’t an extension of marketing, it’s an extension of publishing. were more profitable in the pre-digital age because of the fragmented broadcasting market, but they do make money today. Aren’t publishers failing?” Aren’t they?

Venture Capitalist 9

Venture Capitalist EBITDA Venture Funding Magazine 9

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 9, 2014

But analysts are judging EBITDA, P/E ratios, quarterly growth, and cashflows – which don’t always correlate with long-term value creation. But venture capitalists have focused on specific markets and business models, because of the constraints of the exit, which is how investors have made their returns to-date.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Venture Capitalist Mezzanine Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 7, 2012

But once the company has honed in on a strong value proposition and found initial product-market fit, what is the best approach to scaling it? With over $1 billion in revenue, 2000 employees and a market capitalization of over $6 billion, Akamai has become a role model for scalable start-ups. After all, scaling is hard. Really hard.

P&L 14

P&L Lewin EBITDA Ries 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 10, 2012

GE's expertise at building and marketing engineered products is legendary, but media and entertainment call for different skills. Pfizer divested its consumer health care business in 2006, selling it to J&J for more than 20x EBITDA. One question that seems reasonable in light of the low ($1.75 GE-NBC/Universal. Pfizer Inc.

Due Diligence 15

Due Diligence EBITDA Health Care Gordon 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 15, 2015

When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are important categories to consider. But a market never buys anything. And, since they were spread out across a geographically diverse area, they represented a large enough market to support renewed profitable growth. Only customers buy. It did this in a few ways.

Strategy 8

Strategy Team Discount ROIC 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

An HBR team recently addressed that question by ranking CEOs according to the increases their companies have seen in total shareholder return and market capitalization across their whole tenures. How do you measure a CEO’s impact?

CEO 8

CEO Reputation Metrics EBITDA 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 28, 2016

It might be tempting to turn to the highest starting salary paid, which typically goes to the graduate with the most experience in the most competitive market, who often earns crazy money their first year. million EBITDA company for 4x paying $6 million and using 50% debt financing.

Consultative 8

Consultative CAGR EBITDA CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Employees frequently attribute breakdowns to incompetence or bad faith on the part of colleagues in other departments: "Those bozos in headquarters [or finance or marketing] screw everything up." Within three years, ALL's Brazilian rail operations had increased revenues by 50% and tripled EBITDA.

Strategy 8

Strategy Proposal Guidelines Net Present Value 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2016

But the potential upside made mouths water as they considered the untapped market potential that had been neglected by the current owners, for whom the business unit was a side line. If even 10% of those executives leave in the first year of this transaction, we will fall far short of our EBITDA target.”

EBITDA 8

EBITDA Consensus Participative Commitment 8

Terry Starbucker

JANUARY 3, 2010

After graduating from my undergrad education (2007) I unexpectedly joined my parents’ company as the Global Sales and Marketing Director…it has been amazing yet seems to be a daily trial by fire test. Ak January 5, 2010 at 1:38 pm Thank you Terry. Fantastic post. rm on a consistent basis. These leaders ?nd

Leadership 418

Leadership Ethics Course Learning-by-Doing 418

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2012

billion market capitalization as of this writing. and EBITDA margins are 47%. The chart below shows their financial performance over the last few years, with forecasted 2012 revenue of $767M and EBITDA of $339M. market cap is 6x revenue and 13x EBITDA, so not insane multiples on a comparable basis.

EBITDA 9

EBITDA Engineering Travel Business Model 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

in incremental market capitalization for every $1.00 in incremental market capitalization for $1.00 But one of the keys to success was its strength in the B2B office coffee market, which allowed the company to refine its offer and build awareness before winning in the B2C market. of revenue growth. in revenue growth.

B2C 13

B2C Strategy B2B Waterman 13

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

At this point, the commercial viability of a market-based approach to providing good quality housing in urban areas at prices affordable to low income customers is beyond question. Each post will examine the challenge from a different perspective, including design, technology, urban planning and more.

Suri 15

Suri Construction Class EBITDA 15

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 17, 2012

Financial services professionals may sidetrack us by slinging around financial terms like market cap, P/E, or EV/EBITDA, but investing is ultimately about achieving two goals at once — financing our personal dreams and making a down payment on the world we want. Investing is about taking stock in you.

Finance 9

Finance P&L Due Diligence Hedge 9