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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

The market caps of just four companies, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, now exceed $3 trillion. Their combined assets of $944 billion are an order of magnitude lower than the combined assets of $7,700 billion of the largest 3,177 companies in 1986, when the aggregate market capitalization reached $3 trillion for the first time.

Report 8
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How CMOs Can Get CFOs on Their Side

Harvard Business Review

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
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Why Quants Should Manage Your Supply Chain Risk

Harvard Business Review

When Thai flooding created significant shortages in the hard disc drive market, manufacturers lost millions of dollars. These supply chain-related risk costs are present every day that managers come to work. The former refers to costs that are visible and recorded within the company (e.g.,

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Still Many Ways to Skin a Capital Cost

Harvard Business Review

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 14
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Don’t Let Your Company Get Trapped by Success

Harvard Business Review

This can be quantified by analyzing the extent to which the share prices of S&P 500 firms are driven by a firm’s present value of future growth options (PVGO) rather than cash flow from current operations. Eventually the company is likely to be out of touch with changing market requirements.

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Warren Buffett's 2010 Shareholder Letter: What to Expect

Harvard Business Review

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
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What Xerox PARC Learned About Executing on Open Innovation

Harvard Business Review

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.