Your guide to corporate wealth creation.
Understanding how businesses create value is the key to understanding how individuals build real wealth. Insights from a 3-time NYSE company leader and creator of the Value Equation.
Punching your ticket to the upper 1% is tied to knowing how businesses create value.
Most American multi-millionaires — and all self-made billionaires — build their wealth by owning stock in companies they start or work for. It isn't a secret reserved for the elite. It can be learned.
Current Pre-Tax Return on Equity
- 01 Sales Number of customers × average price × units
- 02 Business Investment Hard assets + working capital
- 03 Operating Profit Margin % of sales after operating costs
- 04 Rate Charge on OPM Cost of using Other People’s Money
- 05 Maintenance CapEx Cost to keep the business whole
- 06 % of Equity Owner capital in the stack
Six variables, middle-school math, universal relationships. Add five more growth variables and you arrive at total expected returns — the Universal Business Model.
3x
NYSE IPO company leader
$20B+
capital deployed to U.S. businesses
40+
years of finance & leadership
6
variables in the Value Equation
Where would you like to start?
The story
From 300 rejection letters to three NYSE companies.
→The Value Equation
The fundamentals that deliver shareholder wealth.
→Watch & learn
An award-winning series, one concept at a time.
→Models & tools
Free Excel models and framework posters.
→Read the writing
Clear thinking on business models and wealth.
→Invite Chris
Complex ideas, bite-sized takeaways, live.
→“A gift for anyone interested in business, from start-up dreamer to seasoned executive.”
Learn what business school didn’t teach you.
New writing on business models, wealth creation, and the Value Equation — delivered straight to your inbox. No noise, just clear thinking.
Prefer to talk? Get in touch ↗