Fortuna partners Greg Milano and Marwaan Karame explore how an ownership culture fuels long-term shareholder returns in the final instalment of a five-part series on economic-profit-based value management. The discussion centers around an updated take on economic profit that shows a stronger relationship to shareholder returns, known as Residual Cash Earnings (RCE). By focusing on RCE, companies gain better insights into where value is created or destroyed, enabling smarter resource allocation and incentive compensation. The episode explains how this value management approach fosters five key traits of an ownership culture, as illustrated through real world case studies featuring corporate clients. This conversation offers valuable lessons for executives, investors, and business leaders aiming to enhance decision-making and build a true ownership culture within their organizations.

Expert in pricing strategy and value-based management, Patrick Furtaw, joins the podcast. Patrick shares insights from his background in strategy, corporate finance, and organizational change, explaining why pricing is one of the most powerful levers for driving shareholder value. The conversation covers common pitfalls such as overreliance on cost-plus pricing, insufficient executive ownership, and misaligned sales incentives, while highlighting solutions like value-based pricing, price realization metrics, and smarter sales compensation structures. We also explore the rise of subscription and outcome-based models across industries, with examples from tech companies, John Deere, and Caterpillar, as well as lessons from Amazon’s approach to price testing. The discussion reinforces a simple but critical truth: customers don’t buy your costs—they buy your value.

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.