Create More Value

Consider a hypothetical company in 2012 with two business units—Amazon and Walmart. Our latest episode considers the question: which business would you rather own and prioritize reinvestment in? Traditional financial metrics would have made Walmart look like the obvious winner—profitable, disciplined, and cash-rich. But what happens if you use a modern economic-profit lens to value these disparate business models? This thought experiment explains why so many high-growth, high-potential businesses get starved of capital at large, public companies that rely on outdated metrics to allocate resources. How you measure matters.

This podcast features the third installment of our LinkedIn Live series on how economic profit drives long-term value creation. Fortuna partners Greg Milano and Marwaan Karame discuss strategic resource allocation: how companies can better allocate capital and other resources to unlock more shareholder value. They explore common pitfalls like erroneous objectives, lack of focus, and decision paralysis that lead firms to invest in value-destroying projects while underinvesting in their best growth opportunities. Through real client case studies, they explain how residual cash earnings, a modern, cash-based economic profit measure helps leaders identify where value is truly created across business units, segments, and products—even down to the SKU level. The episode emphasizes the importance of a fact-based, focused approach to investment decision-making. 

Dan Sansone, former CFO of Vulcan Materials Company, joins the podcast to share how EVA focused forecasting, planning, and incentives on a singular goal of value creation. Drawing on nearly three decades at Vulcan and as a board member, the conversation covers why traditional lookbacks often stifle investment, why rolling targets and economic profit improve accountability, and the importance of designing consistent, transparent incentives that foster an ownership mindset. This episode can help corporate leaders seeking to embed a value framework into everyday business decisions.

This podcast features the second installment of our LinkedIn Live series on how economic profit drives long-term value creation. Fortuna partners Greg Milano and Marwaan Karame discuss how Residual Cash Earnings (RCE) improves upon earlier economic profit models—most notably EVA. Greg shares how his experience with EVA, and later with Credit Suisse’s HOLT framework, led him to identify a key flaw: depreciation was distorting performance, encouraging companies to “sweat assets” and underinvest. RCE treats depreciation differently, restoring the incentive to invest appropriately. Importantly, RCE is also simpler to use and implement, requiring far fewer adjustments than EVA. Research shows that these improvements lead to RCE tracking better with shareholder returns, which means a stronger alignment between the interests of management and long-term investors.

Valuation virtuoso, Michael Mauboussin, joins us to explore the core drivers of long-term value creation. We explore how valuation multiples are often misleading, why the rise of intangible assets requires new valuation frameworks, and how investors and corporate managers alike can better evaluate strategy and competitive advantage. We cover practical frameworks on capital allocation, sustainable competitive advantage, and why truly understanding economic fundamentals is key to avoiding “value traps.” This episode is a must-listen for finance professionals, executives, and serious investors. Michael is Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, a Morgan Stanley Investment Management fund and a finance professor at Columbia Business School.

Joe Milam, founder of AngelSpan and The Legacy Funds, joins the podcast to discuss how behavioral finance principles improve decision-making for corporate managers and investors alike. Milam critiques the current chaotic, informal funding environment for startups and introduces his Venture TAMP platform, which applies disciplined public-market strategies—like the Kelly Criterion and standardized reporting—to early-stage investing. He emphasizes reducing bias, improving transparency, and optimizing capital allocation to support innovation. The conversation spans topics like barriers to corporate innovation, portfolio theory, and how data-driven decision-making often outperforms human intuition in venture and public markets alike.

Fortuna partners Greg Milano and Marwaan Karame highlight how economic profit (EP) drives superior decision-making, cultural alignment, and, ultimately, value creation. Unlike traditional metrics like ROIC or EBITDA margin, EP reflects the true value a company creates—profit earned above the cost of capital. Their research shows that companies embedding EP into planning, decision-making, and incentives outperform the market by 7% annually. Real-world examples, such as Kimball Electronics and Varian Medical Systems, illustrate how adopting EP can trigger profitable growth, foster an ownership mindset, and lead to better capital allocation and portfolio optimization decisions. EP encourages better behaviors like smart spending and risk-taking, focused prioritization, and long-term thinking. 

“From the shop floor to the top floor,” Kimball Electronics employees are laser-focused on economic profit.  Kimball CFO, Jana Croom, discusses the transformative impact of the measure on business performance and how it aligns the team on a shared goal of value creation. Jana explains how economic profit provides a comprehensive view of financial health and aligns decision-making and strategy across all levels of the organization. We cover Kimball’s use of EVA in planning, compensation, and operational execution, including practical examples like inventory management and capital investment. Jana also shares insights on navigating market volatility, balancing capital efficiency, and why it’s important for CFOs to lead well beyond the finance department. This episode offers valuable takeaways for finance leaders and executives seeking to sharpen their team’s strategic focus and embrace a value-oriented ownership culture.

CEO, Ryan Barker, and Chief Strategy Officer, Ken Favaro, of BERA Brand Management explore how brand management strategies intersect with activist investor pressures. They discuss how Bera’s AI-powered platform equips businesses with real-time, predictive brand data that connects brand equity directly to financial outcomes. Using examples like Heinz and Barbie, the conversation highlights how companies can defend and optimize brand investments—especially under activist scrutiny. The takeaway? Treat brand as an asset, measure it with financial rigor, and use data to drive ROI, relevance, and pricing power in a competitive landscape.

AnnaMaria shares insights from her leadership roles in some of the most significant mergers and transformations in recent history—including Pfizer-Wyeth and DowDuPont, and XPO Logistics. She discusses how strong leadership, clear communication, and a robust value creation thesis are critical for successful mergers. The conversation also explores the evolving role of communications in driving growth, managing risk, and building reputation as a core business asset. AnnaMaria DeSalva is also a seasoned leader in strategic communications and corporate transformation. From 2017 – 2024, DeSalva served on the board of XPO Logistics, becoming Vice Chairman in 2019, and played a key role in board engagement, strategy, CEO succession, and governance during XPO’s transformation. Currently, AnnaMaria is Global Chairman of the Burson Group, a leading communications firm focused on creating value through reputation. From 2019 to 2024, she was Global Chairman and CEO of Hill & Knowlton Strategies. Previously, she was Chief Communications Officer at DuPont and a senior advisor to DowDuPont CEO Ed Breen during the company’s historic split into independent public companies. Earlier in her career, she also held leadership roles at Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and GCI Group.