Mia: So, how useful would a firm's book value be for assessing the performance of Extensive's management?
Josh: Well, because Extensive's book value reflects the firm's shares, the firm's book value can be used to evaluate management's performance. It reflects the firm's common stock price and therefore performance, with changes in the market price reflecting management's efforts to maximize the firm's value.
Mia: Now, what about "Economic Value Added"?
Josh: During the 1990s, the consulting firm Stern, Stewart & Company developed the concept of Economic Value Added, or EVA, to better assess management's performance in maximizing their shareholders' wealth. Extensive's EVA equals the additional profit created in excess of the after-tax operating income necessary to finance its total after-tax cost of capital, which is expressed in annual dollars. It is computed by subtracting Extensive's annual dollar cost of capital from its net operating profit after taxes.
In turn, Extensive's annual cost of capital is calculated by multiplying its total operating capital, which includes its net fixed assets and net operating working capital, by the after-tax percentage cost of capital.
Mia: OK, given that description, here's a question for you: Compared to the book value, what is the advantage of using the EVA to evaluate the performance of Extensive's management?
Josh: Give me a second to think... OK, it's better to evaluate the performance of Extensive's management by using the company's EVA rather than the book value of its shareholders' equity because the better the managerial decisions being made, the higher the after-tax net operating income earned, the greater the difference between this net operating income and the cost of capital needed to generate that income, and the higher the EVA, or true economic profit, earned by the company.