Mar
08
2023

The impact of Inflation and interest rates on capital allocation

In 2021, Martin Schwarz, CEO of Stern Value Management, warned that rising inflation could increase the risk-free interest rate to 4% or more, which has now happened.

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Jul
18
2021

Measuring Performance in Oil & Gas

Drivers of value are different in Oil & Gas than in other industries. Traditional accounting measures do not properly reflect the value-creation potential of an integrated Oil & Gas company

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May
21
2021

The Real Risk of Persistent Inflation on Shareholder Value

Both the PPI and the CPI are up in April from a month and a year ago. Inflation impacts shareholder value in a couple of areas: the first is on a firm’s profitability. The second area, the increase in the risk-free rate, impacts all firms.

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May
03
2021

Now is the Time to Re-examine Your Capital Structure

Today’s rapidly evolving and volatile macroeconomic environment requires corporate executives to evaluate whether their current capital structures are optimized for ongoing shareholder value creation.

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Apr
23
2021

iOS14 and Facebook Changes in Marketing: What This Means for Value Creation

Executives can incorporate these value-based insights into their strategic planning and capital allocation discussions over the coming months and show that they are committed to sustained shareholder value creation.

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Dec
28
2020

ESG and Value Creation

Recently, one of the issues that has emerged of relevance to investors, entrepreneurs, and governments, is the value of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) considerations in capital markets.

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Nov
20
2020

US vs. Chinese Companies Revenues or Value Creation?

The latest report has shown that Chinese companies now outnumber US firms in the Fortune 500 and outperforms the corporate performance of the United States.

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Sep
30
2020

David v. Goliath in Retail

Few great companies remain successful over more than a decade. Those that do reinvent, reconfigure, and never rest or think that they have won.

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Aug
21
2020

Capital Structure—Debt in Times of Uncertainty

The optimal capital structure (debt and equity mix) for your business is where cost of capital is at the lowest level it could possibly be without any negative impact on the continuity of the business.

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Aug
13
2020

What Does a CEO Need to Do to Not Get Paid?

CEO Incentive Compensation Plans Are Broken. It is Time to Fix Them

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Jul
30
2020

Minimize the Value Destruction: Management's Commitment in Time of Crisis

Companies have been forced to preserve cash flow during this unprecedented global economic crisis. However, the search for liquidity should not supplant the primary objective of maximizing long-term shareholder value.

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Jul
28
2020

Aerospace & Defense (A&D) Contractors

Capturing Value Creation Among Prime A&D Contractors through VBM - Value Based Management ™ and Economic Value Added (EVA®)

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Jul
21
2020

Capital Allocation: Tangible vs. Intangible Assets

Industries with higher investments in intangibles have better weathered the recent decline. So what should firms in industries that are not known for significant investments in intangibles do?

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Jul
13
2020

Leverage by Industry in Times of Uncertainty

A rise in leverage brings with it an increase in the risk of financial distress, especially in times of uncertainty.

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Jul
07
2020

The Use of TSR in Executive Incentive Compensation

Corporate boards and shareholders are faced with urgent questions on how to address executive compensation during times of crisis. In addition to other doubts cast upon the soundness of using Total Shareholder Returns (TSR) in executive incentive compensation, should executives be rewarded based on shareholder returns from shares that are trading at potentially distorted prices due to the Fed’s intervention in the market?

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Jul
01
2020

VBM Principles During Crisis: A Guide for Corporate Governance

Periods of change are the time to re-evaluate your organization’s corporate governance. The efficacy of corporate governance can oftentimes determine the success or failure of an otherwise promising company. VBM - Value Based Management™ understands the centrality of corporate governance on a business’s operations and position in the overall market.

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Jun
23
2020

VBM - Value Based Management™ and Economic Value Added (EVA®)

What is the central goal of your business? The answer should be to create sustainable value for the owners of the company. VBM - Value Based Management™ provides a framework to achieve that goal. Value creation should be embedded in all key corporate processes for a company to have superlative performance. This lead to the creation of the EVA System, now better known as VBM.

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Jun
16
2020

VBM - Value Based Management™ is the Antidote to Corporate Fragility

The coronavirus pandemic has brought back into the spotlight the works of Nassim Taleb on risk and fragility. Let’s examine how the principles of VBM - Value Based Management™ can be integrated with some of Taleb’s principal theses to improve corporate governance and finance.

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Jun
09
2020

COVID-19: A Catalyst

The war on Covid-19 has been a catalyst for remote working and for control (contact tracing): the fear of biological viruses now outpaces the anxiety of tech viruses.

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May
20
2020

Who Pays the Cost of COVID-19 Capital?

Nothing, especially capital, is free. The trillions of dollars being plowed into the economy because of COVID-19 are not growing on trees. Someone has to pay for that capital.

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May
18
2020

Globalization after COVID

Severe downturns repeat themselves. Markets collapse. Poor choices—those that had looked brilliant—are revealed. Everyone looks shocked when the prior common wisdom is debunked. Some are embarrassed. Previous Cassandras gloat. Finally, errors are corrected. Markets are relieved and rebound.

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May
14
2020

Corporate Planning—A COVID-19 Casualty

The corporate planning and budgeting process, the foundation of all capital allocation and bonuses, is a casualty of COVID-19. It is time to move away from the archaic, months long process into a dynamic, flexible one.

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Apr
20
2020

COVID-19 AND YOUR BUSINESS: Financial Strategy in Times of Uncertainty

We are facing a global economic downturn not foreseen by those dedicated to building economic and financial forecasts. The resulting uncertainty calls for the adoption of appropriate corporate financial strategies. These can be divided into two major areas: preparation and financial policy execution. We will explore these two areas in this article with the intent of helping companies incorporate severe stress scenarios into a financial strategy framework as they continue on their path to maximize long-term shareholder value.

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Apr
17
2020

COVID-19 AND YOUR BUSINESS: Leading in turbulent times: How our small business survived. Memories and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Difficult times require creative minds, cooperation, and a clear focus on the activities that create value for the organization. When one part of the business ecosystem is weak, the others may suffer; when the parts grow together the chain strengthens. In turbulent times, more than ever, VBM – Value-Based Management™ approach will support your business growth while providing the right incentives for your employees.

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Apr
14
2020

COVID-19 AND YOUR BUSINESS: Value Propositions in a Coronavirus World

We have witnessed firsthand how clients and businesses across the world are being negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. As our thoughts go out to all those suffering, we thought we would do our part by sharing some of our insights into how businesses can continue to sustain or create shareholder value during these difficult and uncertain times.

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Apr
10
2020

COVID-19 AND YOUR BUSINESS: VBM - Value-based Management™ Principles in Times of Coronavirus

Learning and adapting during the COVID-19 era will set the pace for an organization’s future performance. The VBM - Value-based Management™ approach comes in very handy to set the foundation for effective capital allocation and governance structures. To get through hard times you need to adapt and build the right incentives that allow your organization to be agile, resilient, and generate the necessary outcomes for short-term endurance and long-term success.

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Mar
30
2020

The Share Buyback Mania

Bad financial advice is a feature of history....and the last decade had a few for sure. Our favorite has to be the advice given by the so-called finance gurus to senior management teams: “Buy back your shares. It’s a sure way of driving up your share price!”

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Feb
24
2020

The Corporate Governance Case for Listing on Major Stock Exchanges

Embedding and ensuring robust Corporate Governance is vital for firms in less developed markets that get listed on a major stock exchange. But a listing does not guarantee better performance, adopting world-class best practices is a choice executives must make.

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Dec
31
2019

Archives

See below for our older articles.

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Dec
09
2019

Why Shareholder Value and Not Stakeholder Value?

While the debate on the issue of shareholder value vs. stakeholder value has been on-going for decades, it re-gained prominence...

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Mar
29
2016

The SEC's Clawback Proposal: Our Recommendations from a Value Management Perspective

We have been following the developments in clawback policies in compensation very closely over the last several years. In this article we introduce the SEC’s latest proposal on clawbacks (Proposed Rule 10D-1) and provide recommendations to affected companies.

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Mar
01
2016

Should My Firm Hedge?

In the first article of this two-part series on hedging, we discussed two best practices in hedging policy management. In this article – part two of the series – we ask a precursor question: should my firm be hedging? The answer to this question will vary by firm and will depend on the circumstances surrounding the decision to hedge.

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Dec
16
2015

Hedging Policy Management

In an economic environment with a strengthening dollar, a weakening euro and yen, and a steady anticipation of interest rate hikes in the US, the topic of currency hedges comes closer to the spotlight particularly for multinational firms with presence in the US, Europe, and/or Asia.

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Aug
25
2015

Vault Recognizes Stern Value Management as a Top 50 Consulting Firm

It’s been a busy year for Stern Value Management, and the hard work is paying off – we are recognized as a Top 50 firm in the 2016 Vault Consulting Firms ranking. We are also recognized as a Top 10 firm in key categories, which are highlighted below.

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Aug
13
2015

Why Pay Ratio Disclosure Will Create More Problems Than it Will Solve

Why will disclosing the ratio of CEO pay to the median pay of employees is pointless, costly and has the potential to backfire...

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Mar
10
2015

Profit or Value: What Should We Share?

Ask a chief executive if value is important to him or her, and he or she will likely say yes. Ask if employees are important stakeholders in the enterprise, and the answer will almost certainly be yes.

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Feb
26
2015

Value Based Management - A Poison Pill Against Activist Investors

Activist investors have been lauded and criticized by many. The Economist magazine recently published a special report on these investors, dubbing them the saviors of capitalism.

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Feb
12
2015

Strategic Planning Done the Right Way

A common misconception is that “free market” proponents – and their most recognized advocate, Eugene Fama, Nobel Prize laureate – believe that stock markets are perfect.

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Feb
09
2015

The Problems with Traditional Planning

Most firms spend more time on negotiation than on strategy when it comes to setting targets. In these firms, planning is traditionally tied to the budgeting process, which in turn is linked to variable compensation: a unit negotiates a target with its corporate office and then its managers are paid the incentive if they meet the target.

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Jan
15
2015

Time to Cut Fuel Subsidies

Fuel subsidies are elitism dressed as populism. Thus, they are irresistible to politicians in developing countries.

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Dec
12
2014

2015 Economic Forecast

Last year my economic forecast for 2014 called for a rate of real economic growth of 4% for the U.S., much higher than the prevailing forecast at the time as well as the prevailing rate of economic growth that had existed in the years 2010-2013.

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Aug
18
2014

Indonesia in Southeast Asia: Moving Up the Value Chain

As Stern Value Management has done annually, this year we have looked at the wealth creation of the 100 largest Indonesian and 100 largest ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) firms over the last 5 years. In order to measure wealth created by firms, we use the Wealth Added Index (WAI™)...

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Aug
16
2014

In Pursuit of Long-Term Sustainable Alpha

This article is an introduction to how companies can lay the foundation for long-term value creation. We will discuss three major steps they can take to achieve this goal.

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Jan
01
2014

2014 Economic Forecast

There are three rules in economics that need to be explained before an economic forecast can be justified.

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May
20
2013

EVA® and Operational Analysis

The objective of all corporations is to create value for shareholders. One way to achieve this is by improving a firm’s operations. Although the principle is straightforward, determining exactly what improvements should be carried out to increase or at least sustain the overall value of the firm remains a challenge for management.

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Apr
24
2013

Financial Policy: What is the Optimal Capital Structure and Why Does The Debt Level Vary Among Industries?

The objective of firm value maximization is at the heart of corporate financial theory. A company can create value through its operating, investment, and financing decisions.

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Mar
21
2013

Successful Entrepreneurs Manage Your Value

The current economic crisis that has engulfed most of the developed economies since 2008 has spurred much change around the world. It encouraged economists and management scholars to think differently about entrepreneurship.

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Feb
21
2013

Financial Performance and Leadership Change at Top Companies in G7 Countries

Over the past few years the global economy has been riding a roller coaster. The most recent financial crisis first started in the United States during the summer of 2007.

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Jan
21
2013

Performance Appraisal Versus Value-Driven Strategy: A Study of America's Oil and Gas Industry

In the oil and gas industry, performance appraisal and strategy are diametrically opposed. Key indicators highlighted in annual reports include return metrics like ROACE (return on average capital employed), or production metrics, such as cost per barrel and production barrels.

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