Increased annual sales and growth of earnings - these are the usual standards of success for the American corporation. But what does it mean if the company achieves its goals but the value of its stock declines at the same time? According to Rappaport, these companies are judging success by the wrong standards, and often become the target for takeovers. Rappaport argues that the ultimate test of corporate strategy, indeed the only reliable measure, is whether it creates economic value for shareholders.
Should a company's management be most accountable to employees, customers, or management itself? In
Creating Shareholder Value, Alfred Rappaport argues that management's primary responsibility is to company shareholders. First published 12 years ago, the ideas put forth by Rappaport have since become commonplace in companies around the world.
Rappaport eschews the most common measures of a company's performance, such as price-to-earnings ratios ("Cash is a fact, profit is an opinion"), return on investment, and equity measures, instead concentrating on developing a shareholder value approach that measures "value drivers" such as sales-growth rates, operating profit margins, and cost of capital. This revised and updated edition addresses the issues of corporate downsizing and the social responsibilities of business. It also includes new sections on the value of mergers and acquisitions and how to implement a shareholder value system. Both managers and investors alike will find this book useful.