The current financial crisis has caused many of us to question the motives and actions that drive the business world, even the basic notion that firms should be run so as to maximize shareholder value has come under increasing scrutiny.

pt. I. Value-based management, corporate social responsibility, and the purpose of the corporation -- 1. Purpose of a corporation -- 2. Elements of value-based management -- 3. Need to measure what you want to manage -- pt. II. Finer details of value-based management and corporate social responsibility -- 4. Free cash-flow valuation: the foundation of value-based management -- 5. Pick a name, any name: economic profit, residual income, or economic value added -- 6. Corporate social responsibility: putting the S in value(s)-based management -- pt. III. VBM applications -- 7. Project evaluation using the new metrics -- 8. Incentive compensation: what you measure and reward is what gets done -- pt. IV. Lessons we have learned -- 9. Lessons learned -- Epilogue: where we are now.