Financial performance measurement

They’re often payroll in disguise. Here’s how boards can get a clearer picture of the real accounting.

The strategies of “stable outperformers” offer organizations an alternate path forward.

The role has one of the shortest tenures of any in the C-Suite and is often blamed for below-target growth. But recent research shows firing the CRO can cause more problems than it solves.

New research on how to identify investments that produce delayed but real profits — not just those that produce short-term accounting profits.

A data-driven approach to design, measurement, and implementation

Investors have a quantitative understanding of how the market values a company. Management teams should too.

Don’t undervalue the overlooked.

Digital financial companies are making big claims about financial inclusion — but are failing to disclose data that backs up their efforts.

A new measure gets past the distortions of total shareholder return and puts buybacks into perspective.

This year, ESG moved from a “nice to have” to an essential part of corporate strategy — and there’s no going back.

A recent analysis of 35,000 manufacturing plants found that those with more-structured management practices were more likely to acquire ones with less-structured practices.

A dynamic scorecard can help you predict future performance too.

What you measure is what you get. Senior executives understand that their organization’s measurement system strongly affects the behavior of managers and employees. Executives also understand that traditional financial accounting measures like return-on-investment and earnings-per-share can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation—activities today’s competitive environment demands. The traditional financial performance measures worked well […]

The March–April 1974 issue of HBR carried an article that reported on Phases I and II of a project sponsored by the Marketing Science Institute and the Harvard Business School. The basic purpose of the project is to determine the profit impact of market strategies (PIMS). The earlier article established a link between strategic planning […]

What every manager ought to know about the different kinds of forecasting and the times when they should be used.