Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2017

While a laudable effort in principle, measuring a company’s tendency to make myopic operating and investing decisions is fiendishly complex. But the other indicators probably pick up legitimate differences in how companies in the sample operate, as opposed to whether they are myopic. On the surface, this measure looks reasonable.

EPS 8

EPS Metrics Depreciation Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Our research with members of the global C-suite, and with leading sustainability and innovation experts, has identified seven vectors of breakthrough change. Companies like Unilever are on an open innovation drive, while GSK and Novartis are focusing on access to medicines in poorer markets. Business would change the rules of the game.

EPS 8

EPS Innovation CEO Pharmaceuticals 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Who declared 7 or 10 or 15 percent growth in earnings a sacrosanct pursuit, above all other corporate goals — like the innovation that leads to novel solutions that address customer needs? Nobody writes a paean to the search for 9 percent EPS growth. It's a strategic and operational straight-jacket.

GAAP 8

GAAP Short-term P&L EPS 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 7, 2015

Consider management actions such as cutting jobs and investment as a response to currency fluctuations and the resulting accounting impact of those cuts on earnings per share (EPS). Share buybacks are preferred to investment in innovation, entrepreneurship, and value creation. This is a situation that cannot endure.

Management 8

Management Drucker EPS Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 30, 2013

In fact, Amazon was only operating at such a high burn rate because it could. Clayton Christensen has long complained that standard financial metrics can be enemies of innovation and growth. With Amazon, though, nobody emphasizes EPS.

Training 10

Training Bond Christensen Long-term 10

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2011

A friend of mine, Godfrey Sullivan , asked me to consider running the operations for the Americas unit at Autodesk. I was being asked to be the complementary half: the internal candidate would be the outward-facing VP running the Americas, but I would run the internal operations of the $200M+ business, owning the title "revenues manager."

EPS 15

EPS Strategy Reference Execution 15