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How Incentives for Long-Term Management Backfire

Harvard Business

The board chose earnings per share (among other financial metrics) to measure and reward executives for long-term performance. Another company, in the agricultural technology sector, chose free cash flow as the primary long-term incentive measure. Eventually, the company’s share price nosedived.

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Subscription Businesses Are Booming. Here’s How to Value Them

Harvard Business

Likewise, what is the right set of metrics that company executives should use to manage their subscription businesses in order to hold themselves fully accountable to their stakeholders? The majority of the disclosures they provided at the time were standard top-down metrics (e.g., Their revenues grew by over 100% in 2016.