Strategic Finance

One thing we would caution you against as a Finance student is not to become caught up in numbers, but to also consider the strategic options available in a company and its projects. You should continually evaluate a company's projects from both a financial and strategic perspective. If you read this article, it sounds like a strategic analysis of the company, but much of the article has financial underpinnings. For example, the $30 million of value created by the cruise ship is the NPV of the ship. As for the strategic options, "the assets that create the most value should be strongly emphasized" simply means accept the projects with the highest NPVs. Further on, "those destroying value should be fixed, shut down, or sold" is the option to abandon. Finance matters and is an important part of any company's operations, but aligning the numbers to help guide the company's strategy going forward is an important component of success.