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End the Religion of ROE

Harvard Business Review

corporation than "what's the ROE on that?" ROE justifies the means. To an extent not widely recognized, it was an equation in the first place that gave ROE the power to dominate not just investment decisions, but an entire business culture. There is no more powerful question in a U.S. Social media spending? Wellness checkups?

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How Companies Can Use Investors to Their Advantage

Harvard Business Review

” This feedback helped Oka, an industry outsider, convince President Kazuo Ushida, a 40-year veteran of Nikon’s technology businesses, that the company needed to revisit its dialogue with investors. It would implement targets linked to shareholder value, including ROE and ROIC. Heini Wehrle/BIA/Minden Pictures/Getty Images.

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Idle Funds are the Devil's Playground

Harvard Business Review

Regarding the latter, we point to some well-documented and broadly perceived shifts in the geography, demography, and technology of global economic activity. And at the time, as industrial technology appeared, it afforded many good opportunities to invest in such assets at high expected returns.

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