From the team behind Valuation¿the #1 bestselling reference on corporate finance¿comes a decision-making guide for all executives to use as they create, manage, and sustain shareholder value.

Corporate leaders are regularly confronted with conventional wisdom and half-truths about value creation. They're given conflicting advice about what will or won't appeal to investors, often contradicting their own judgment about what builds lasting worth in their companies and the economy.

In Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance, partners from the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company describe the basic principles of value creation and their relevance. Internalizing these principles¿or cornerstones¿gives decision makers the independence and courage they need to challenge conventional wisdom, defy half-truths, and build thriving businesses.

The four cornerstones are:

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  The Core of Value: a business's value is driven by its growth and return on capital, and resulting cash flows
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  The Conservation of Value: value is created when companies generate higher cash flows, not by simply rearranging investors' claims on cash flows
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  The Expectations Treadmill: movements in company share prices reflect changes in the stock market's expectations, not just underlying performance
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  The Best Owner: the value of a business is not an absolute but, rather, depends on who is managing it and the strategy pursued

While there are many books that cover selected topics within corporate finance¿often for specialized practitioners¿it's the rare book that offers leaders a unifying viewpoint of business. Value is that book.