Valuation expert, author, and leader of McKinsey & Company’s strategy and corporate finance practice, Tim Koller, joins the podcast. Greg and Tim explore the critical drivers of long-term value creation, the risks of short-termism, and the essential role of CEOs and CFOs in overriding human and organizational bias to drive optimal corporate strategy. We cover the importance of granular resource allocation, organizational biases like inertia and groupthink, and the process-based discipline and data needed to sustain value creation. The discussion also covers the role of artificial intelligence in business—distinguishing between its potential as a tool for efficiency versus an enabler of competitive advantage.

Most incentive plans fail to drive true value creation—they reward mediocrity, encourage short-term thinking, and reward sandbagging and gaming of the system. In the fourth instalment of a LinkedIn Live series, Fortuna partners Greg Milano and Marwan Karame share a better incentive compensation design using a modern take on economic profit: Residual Cash Earnings. We cover why traditional bonus plans fall short, the key traits of an ownership culture, and how true value-based incentives align management’s interests with those of long-term investors. We also feature real-world examples and simulations that demonstrate why this approach is so effective at creating an ownership culture at large public companies.

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why so many high-growth, high-potential businesses get starved of capital at large, public companies that rely on outdated metrics to allocate resources.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.