―――よく使われる便利な表現、間違いやすいポイントをチェックしよう

Teacher: In addition to general sales volume and profit, so far we have introduced “ROA” or “Return on Assets”, “ROE” or “Return on Equity” and so on as management 【1. indicators】. These indicators also have their own weak points. What kind of examples can you come up with?

A: What about profits, where the hopes and expectations of the shareholders are not properly reflected?

B: I think depending on the accounting policy 【2. pursued】, different figures can be arrived at. More specifically, companies with longer histories have more latent assets such as land which as a result gives for a higher ROA.

Teacher: Both are good points. Keeping those problems in mind, “EVA”, short for “Economic Value Added”, is attracting a lot of 【3. attention】 as a new management indicator. I think perhaps everyone is at least familiar with the word. “EVA” is a figure arrived at by 【Point】subtracting the invested capital from the NOPAD, “Net Operating Profit after Tax”, and then multiplying that figure by the WACC or “Weighted Average Cost of Capital”.

C: So, is that to say that the cost of capital will now be taken into consideration as a financial element in the accounts.

Teacher: That's correct. A nice point. That is a big characteristic of EVA. It allows us to get a 【4. grasp】, in cash terms, of a company's position through its PL, Profit and Loss Statement and BS, Balance Sheet but with the value generated by invested capital also taken into account. Furthermore, it has the characteristic of not particularly being affected either way by the accounting policy pursued. The point that I would like to discuss with everyone is whether this should be adopted as an indicator by your own companies. Mr. A, what do you think?

A: I think it would be difficult for our company to adopt. I think it will be very difficult for ordinary employees to grasp such financial concepts as WACC.

B： I think the same is true for my company. I imagine a majority of people will hold the opinion that just using ROA and ROE will be enough, without resorting to these kinds of difficult concepts.

Teacher： I think both of your opinions have a lot of weight. However Kao, Orix, Matsushita and others have been using EVA as an indicator for almost 10 years now. Why do you think this might be?

A： Um…. I guess it was at the request of shareholders.

C：Is not perhaps because the number of overseas investors is increasing? Against a background of globalization of capital markets, it has become necessary to 【5. cater】 to the needs of not only customers but to the providers of capital as well.

Teacher： Yes, I think that is certainly a major factor. It's a slightly difficult topic but raising EVA is closely related to raising the value of a company. Let's discuss this further next time.

■MBA頻出の便利な表現

1. indicator (名詞)
「Indicator」は「指標」の意味で、ビジネスシーンに関わらず、様々な議論の場面で使われる表現です。

例文：
Leading economic indicators point to a major downturn in the advanced economies.
景気先行指数が先進諸国経済の大きな減速を示している。

The WHO maintains a database of global core health indicators.
WHO（世界保健機関）では世界的な主要健康指標をデータベース化している。

2. pursue (動詞)
「Pursue」は、「追う（follow）」の意。しばしば、「policy」や「plan of action」などの表現と共に使われる。

例文：
They pursued an ambitious marketing strategy.
彼らは、野心的なマーケティング戦略を推進した。

We should have a backup plan to pursue in the event of plan A not going well.
プランAが万一うまく行かなかった場合に備え、何か代替策を用意しておくべきだろう。

3. attract attention (phrase)
「注目を集める」の意。「being the center of attention」と、ほぼ同様に使われる。肯定的

例文：
The new liquid crystal display TV is the center of attraction.
液晶テレビの新製品が注目を浴びています。

The controversial new commercial attracted a lot of negative attention.
その新しいCMは物議を醸し、否定的な注目を集めました。

4. grasp (動詞)(名詞)
「Grasp」は、「つかむ」「握る」の意。と同時に、「人が意味や技術などを理解する（has understood）」の意味でも、よく使われます。

例文：
The company was very quick to grasp the potential of the market opening.
その会社は非常に迅速に市場開放の可能性を把握した。

Sato san has an excellent grasp of marketing.
佐藤さんは非常によくマーケティングを理解しています。

5. cater to （動詞）
「Cater to」は、人の要求を受け入れる場面での「meet」「respond」「provide」と同じように使われます。

例文：
It is inevitably difficult to cater to the needs of all staff.
すべてのスタッフのニーズに答えるのはなかなか難しいことです。

Our company's products cater to the top end of the market.
我が社の商品は最上位のマーケットを対象にしています。

■間違いやすいポイント

Point：計算式に使う前置詞を覚えよう
　本文の中に、「subtracting the invested capital from the NOPAD, Net Operating Profit after Tax, and then multiplying that figure」という文面が出てきました。このように何かを算出する場面においては、どの動詞がどの前置詞を取るのかに注意すべきです。まずは次のリストを覚えておくといいでしょう。数学的に「割る」と「掛ける」は同じプロセスですので、両方とも「by」を取ります。

足し算：add A to B
引き算：subtract A from B
割り算：divide A by B
掛け算：multiply A by B

　なお、上の動詞の名詞形は、それぞれ以下のとおりです。

addition
subtraction
division
multiplication

　ちなみに数字以外でも、「in addition（〜に加え）」というような表現をする際には、「We will visit London in addition to Paris（ロンドンだけではなくパリも訪問します）」といったように、前置詞は「to」を取ります。




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