Andrew Greta's Business Development Blog

It’s time to bring financial reporting out of the Middle Ages to help head off the next boom-bust valuation cycle.

Estimating the fair market value of a company using an annual SEC-required 10k form and public financial reports is a bit like trying to maintain a modern aircraft using blueprints from Orville and Wilbur Wright’s workshop. Although the founders of aviation understood the basic physics of flight, their bent wood and canvas culture could not even begin to contemplate the complicated propulsion and electronic systems of today’s planes.

Similarly, modern investors attempting to evaluate a firm are handicapped by archaic financial reporting methods that have changed little from their origins in Medieval Europe. Now nearly 10 years into the 21st century, it is time to admit that we can do better.

SFO Magazine, August 2009