Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

We worship internal rates of return (IRR) to our detriment. For years I've made the case that companies should shift their decision-making and investment criteria to take into account intangible and longer-term benefits that are missed in normal IRR calculations. Corporate social responsibility Sustainability Wal-mart IRRAt the recent GreenBiz Forum in New York , I was surprised by an on-stage interview with Fred Bedore, an executive from Walmart.

ROI 15

ROI Payback Period Supply Chain Rate of Return 15

Terry Starbucker

MAY 1, 2011

The goal is a high IRR, and the resulting Cause is “ meaningfully increasing shareholder value”. (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda www.shashi.name. This past weekend I co-hosted our annual gathering of 150 business practitioners and aspiring entrepreneurs in Chicago, SOBCon (“SOB” stands for Successful Online Business).

IRR 295

IRR Leadership Metrics Loyalty 295

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2016

There are a variety of methods you can use to calculate ROI — net present value , payback, breakeven — and internal rate of return , or IRR. For help in deciphering this I talked with Joe Knight, author of HBR TOOLS: Return on Investment and cofounder and owner of the Business Literacy Institute , to learn more about how IRR works and when to use it. The IRR is the rate at which the project breaks even. If the IRR is higher, it’s a worthwhile investment.

IRR 8

IRR NPV Rate of Return Net Present Value 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2017

A veritable alphabet soup (ROA, RONA, ROIC, ROCE, IRR, MVA, APV, and the like) exists to measure our financial capital. Vincent Tsui for HBR. Today’s executives spend a lot of time managing the balance sheet, despite the fact that it doesn’t represent their company’s scarcest resource. Financial capital is relatively abundant and cheap. According to Bain’s Macro Trends Group, the global supply of capital stands at nearly 10 times global GDP.

ROCE 16

ROCE RONA IRR ROIC 16

Harvard Business Review

MAY 15, 2012

For every 10 investments, a good firm may have one defining investment, returning hundreds of percent in IRR. I am not pessimistic about Facebook's future. I have used the social network for eight years and continue to be impressed with Mark Zuckerberg's focus on product and his vision for the internet. When I logged into the site for the first time in the spring of 2004, I was prepared to hate the service. It was just weeks until Zuckerberg's addictive platform won me over.

IPO 15

IPO IRR Advertising Venture Funding 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 4, 2014

The demands of 80/20 criteria shifts the innovation emphasis away from more traditional financial metrics around DCF , IRR , and NPV and toward better understanding of how novelty preserves, protects, and extends the 80/20 franchise. Declaring he’d cull up to 100 brands — many of which he’d acquired and developed — P&G CEO A.G. Lafley launches a “game changer” profoundly different than what he championed in his eponymous 2008 bestseller.

DCF 8

DCF IRR NPV Franchising 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

and an IRR of 27% for those companies with the most aggressive, science-based goals and actions on climate. This week, CEOs and world leaders met at the UN to talk climate. In the run-up to these high-level talks, many companies and some relatively new voices from the business community have been sounding both the alarm and the rallying cry for action. At the same time, the cost of renewable energy has dropped very far, very fast.

IRR 8

IRR Energy Committee Commitment 8