"Profitability is the Key to Value. If You've Got it, Flaunt It. If You Don't Have It, Get It (business strategy). If You Can't Get It, Get Out (capital strategy)."

--- Bill Fruhan, Professor Finance, Harvard Business School, author of: Financial Strategy: Studies in the Creation, Transfer, and Destruction of Shareholder Value.

========================================

Several management themes dominate business history:

     * Individuals start companies - because they have Customers

     * Cash and Risk are at the heart of all Economic Decisions

     * Management makes only 3 types of Decisions: Investing, Financing and Operating

     * Sustainable Growth Opportunities, not sustainable profitable growth, is the Goal

     * Size, Growth, Duration of Cash-Generating Ability determine Economic Success

     * Profitability is the Key to Value and to Creating Wealth for Shareholders

     * Capital Flows to the Highest Returns (across industry lines and geographic borders)

Management decisions affect the future cash-generating ability of a business. Management makes only three types of decisions: investing, financing and operating.

Investing Decisions (Capital Strategy): CEOs (Corporate Culture, Ethics, Leadership), Corporate Control, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Governance, R&D, Shareholder Value, Venture Capital

Financing Decisions: CFOs, Finance

Operating Decisions (Business Strategy): Blunders & Failures, Competitive Intelligence, Corporate Communications, COO, Customers, Executives, Family Businesses, Human Capital (Mentoring, Motivation), Innovation, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management, Management History, Manufacturing, Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Productivity, Quality Management, Reorganization, Sales, Strategy, Turnarounds

Investing Decisions

Financing Decisions

Operating Decisions

Education & Learning