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Why Some Digital Companies Should Delay Profitability for as Long as They Can

Harvard Business Review

In the world of technology: the more of something you make, the more valuable it can become. When your product can become more valuable to your customers over time, the way you prioritize building features and harvesting profits within a business needs to change. The Refresher: Net Present Value. So is Facebook.

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Why We Need to Update Financial Reporting for the Digital Era

Harvard Business Review

In our recent HBR article , we argued that financial statements fail to capture the value created by modern digital companies. Since then, we interviewed several chief financial officers (CFOs) of leading technology companies and senior analysts of investment banks who follow technology companies.

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Hospital Budget Systems Are Holding Back Innovation

Harvard Business Review

We have identified how hospitals’ budgeting systems have erected three distinct barriers to the adoption of technology. These barriers, however, can be overcome by changing how hospitals acquire new technology and by providing incentives to units to use digital innovations to provide more effective and efficient care.

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What Xerox PARC Learned About Executing on Open Innovation

Harvard Business Review

At that time it was hard for PARC to understand how much we needed to invest in a new technology before approaching partners to work together in commercialization. Potential open innovation partners can't always immediately envision later-stage business opportunities from early-stage technology seeds. Use them to create an ecosystem.

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Why Is an App Worth as Much as a Small Oil Field?

Harvard Business Review

While on the surface, the dirty business of fossil fuels is nothing like Silicon Valley, many in the oil business have moved beyond the standard net present value (NPV) model for assessing the merit of investments. What if I suggested that the best place to look for answers could be the shale oil fields of North Dakota?

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What If Investors Who Held Their Shares Longer Got More Voting Power?

Harvard Business Review

I agree with their vision of a future in which more companies focus on the long term and become more productive for the world (their findings accord with my own work on the dangers of short-termism ). The Refresher: Net Present Value. Related Video.

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