Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 23, 2013

If you were looking for a theme song that captures marketing today, you could do worse than pick Queen’s anthem “Under Pressure.” Marketing is under pressure to show results, cut costs, and drive growth. Marketers should welcome it. In our experience, marketing can increase marketing ROI (MROI) by 15 – 20 percent.

Marketing 12

Marketing NPV Short-term Net Present Value 12

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Marketing is in the midst of an ROI revolution. The arrival of advanced analytics and plentiful data have allowed marketers to demonstrate return on investment with a degree of precision that’s never been possible before. To date, however, the reality of marketing analytics has fallen short of the promise.

CFO 8

CFO Short-term Long-term Benchmarking 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 22, 2010

From where I sit as an economist, it's still all about the economy and the long-term impact of the problems laid bare by the Great Recession. Consider, for example, that the estimated net present value of obligations under the Social Security system is approximately $8 trillion.

GDP 15

GDP Net Present Value Crisis Cost 15

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 10, 2011

When executives evaluate a potential investment, whether it's to build a new plant, enter a new market, or acquire a company, they weigh its cost against the future cash flows they expect will spring from it. To make sure they're comparing apples to apples, they discount those future cash flows to arrive at their net present value.

CAPM 13

CAPM Cost Discounted Cash Flow Cost of Capital 13

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 15, 2012

Applied to open innovation, it means framing conversations so decision-makers understand the future value ("the payoff"), how much investment is needed ("the exercise price"), and the associated risks of bringing an externally sourced technology or concept to market. Net Present Value ). You can invest iteratively.

Innovation 8

Innovation Execution Net Present Value Open-book 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

For decades multinational corporations have poured hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investments into emerging markets , sometimes preferring the investment climate of "stable" authoritarian regimes over "messy" democracies. In both places, we know the instability will worsen macroeconomic performance in the short term.

NPV 12

NPV Short-term Discount Politics 12

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

But why compare apples (book value) to oranges (share price and dividends)? Buffett explains that book value is the best proxy for "intrinsic value," the net present value of all estimated future cash flows. Consider that since 1965, Berkshire's book value grew 434,057% and the S&P index grew only 5,430%.

Letter 15

Letter P&L Net Present Value Insurance 15