August 2019 Vol. 8 No. 8
charlie goodrich
Hello,

Most businesses “Make Money.” But do they make enough? “Making Money" or being profitable is an imprecise term, one with several possible definitions depending on the measures used and the circumstances involved.

Understanding your cost of capital — and translating it into practical business measures and decisions — is a critical aspect in this regard.

Read on for more on this important topic.
All the best,
Charlie
Charlie Goodrich
Founder and Principal
Goodrich & Associates
In this issue…
Are You Sure You’re Really Making Money?
Heard On The Street
About Us
Are You Sure You’re Really Making Money?
Your company, division or product line is making lots of money. That’s good. But is it enough? And, for that matter, what does “enough” mean, anyway?

Enough profit is when your economic profit exceeds your cost of capital.

I wrote at length about the cost of capital and how to measure it here. Simply stated, it is the weighted average of the cost of equity plus the cost of debt, with each component costed at current market rates.

Financial accounting does not charge for the cost of equity, so you have to take that out of your profits. Also, financial accounting charges for the cost of debt at the rate your company borrowed, not today’s market rate. So, an adjustment needs to be made for that. This adjustment is most significant for term debt with fixed interest rates, including the rate fundamentally embedded in capital leases.

There are two other common ways financial accounting often differs from true economic profits.

The first is having the wrong depreciation period for fixed assets. For example, I worked with a high-end party rental company that amortized tables, chairs and assorted furniture over five years. Why five years? Because that depreciation rate was called for to do a tax return; only one depreciation schedule needed to be maintained.

This problem can surface in amortization rates for tooling and so forth. Also, the rate of depreciation may vary as the asset ages. A simple example is owning a car. The value drops a lot as soon as it is driven off the lot, then quite a bit the next year, but by less each successive year. So, if accounting uses straight line depreciation, the cost is understated in the early years and overstated in the later years.

The second common way is when market rates or costs differ from what is used for accounting purposes. One example is when the rent charged to the operating entity by the real estate entity is below market, something that often occurs when the real estate has risen substantially in value. Another common example is when there is a dramatic change in price of the cost of goods (in either direction), but inventory is not adjusted accordingly.

Big companies have even more cost of capital pitfalls to be aware of.

Conceptually, markets give big companies a blended cost of capital based on the specific business units they may operate. A weighted average of sorts. Two things often happen. Companies delude themselves and think some or all of their businesses have a lower cost of capital than they really do. In the cases of particularly complex companies, investors often give up and just use a number. This is one of the reasons big companies may spin out business units — it allows investors to value the (now) two businesses at the proper cost of capital for each.

Likewise, and regardless of overall business size, new products and ventures are riskier than core products. In most cases, these should also have a higher cost of capital.

Big companies have complicated profitability measurement system based on all sorts of allocations. This is further complicated by the desire to slice and dice by business unit, product line, customer and more. There are all sorts of tradeoffs that are made in these complicated measurement systems that, when used improperly, can give misleading results.

True cost of capital and economic profitability.

Given all of the above, how do I go about making business decisions? Consider these factors…
  • Know your cost of capital. I refer you again to my earlier newsletter, but the easiest thing to do is to hire an expert, one with access to the needed market data.
  • Use realistic depreciation rates.
  • Keep things simple. Look at the true economic return periodically and as needed. Take the cost of capital into account when setting hurdle rates (of return) for new projects. Make other market-based adjustments as needed, too. Look at the true economic return of projects as part of capital or project reviews. (Read more here.)
  • Translate the economic measures to accounting measures. For example, what approximate return on equity (ROE) is needed to make an economic profit? This means business units need to have a balance sheet for which they are responsible.
  • Have a good profitability measurement system that measures profit for products, customers and markets. Know its limitations, especially when it comes to costing and allocations.
What does it mean when you have a large economic profit that amply exceeds the cost of capital? There are two general possibilities. One is that your market is not competitive, likely due to the government through patents, copyrights, permits and licenses, or because there are other significant barriers to entry. The other is that your market is competitive, and competition is (or will soon be) knocking on your customers’ doors!

Conclusion

“Making Money” is an imprecise term, one with several possible definitions depending on the measures used and the circumstances involved. To grow your business consistently and successfully, make sure you understand your cost of capital and that you translate it accurately into practical business measures and decisions.
Heard on the Street
What on earth is going on today in this crazy world of ours?

To get a better grip on what is happening, why it’s happening, and where we are going, read this insightful article, Bound to Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Liberal International Order.”

While a bit long at 50 pages (it is attempting to explain the world, after all), it offers the kind of insight I rarely see.

The article is written by John Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Not surprisingly, his specialty is international relations.

You can find the article here.
About Us
Goodrich & Associates is a management consulting firm. We specialize in restructuring and insolvency problems. Our Founder and Principal, Charlie Goodrich, holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the University of Virginia, and has over 30 years experience in this area.


To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, please add
[email protected] to your address book today.

Goodrich & Associates respects your privacy.
We do not sell, rent, or share your information with anybody.

Copyright © 2019 Goodrich & Associates LLC. All rights reserved.

For more on Goodrich & Associates and the services we offer, click here .


Newsletter developed by Blue Penguin Development
Goodrich & Associates
781.863.5019