Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 22, 2010

During the financial crisis, the world came to the apparently shocking realization that debt financing entails risks. Consider, for example, that the estimated net present value of obligations under the Social Security system is approximately $8 trillion.

GDP 16

GDP Net Present Value Crisis Cost 16

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 15

CAPM Cost Discounted Cash Flow Cost of Capital 15

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

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 11

Report GAAP Net Present Value CFO 11

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 9

CFO Short-term Long-term Benchmarking 9

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. Certainly the money at stake is substantial.

NPV 15

NPV Short-term Discount Politics 15

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

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 18, 2015

We also know that private equity funds have outperformed public equity markets over the last three decades , even after the fees they charge are accounted for. In particular, we are interested in how many of their responses correlate with what academic finance knows and what it teaches.

CAPM 8

CAPM Discounted Cash Flow Company Rate of Return 8