How Kimberly‐Clark Uses Real Options

Martha Amram, Fanfu Li and Cheryl A. Perkins

Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 2006, vol. 18, issue 2, 40-47

Abstract: During the past five years, Kimberly‐Clark (K‐C) has faced a familiar management challenge: How can senior managers bring the rigor and discipline used to make daily operating decisions to the uncertain and risky world of innovation? The challenge was particularly acute at K‐C because the company is well known for its reliance on Return On Invested Capital (ROIC) and Discounted Cash Flow (DCF), both measures that are widely believed to lead to undervaluation of projects with risky upside potential. This article discusses how and why K‐C adopted and now uses the real options approach to project evaluation and management. The authors also share some lessons learned during the adoption process, including how the company adapted the real options framework to its own circumstances and requirements. The K‐C experience shows that successful adoption rests on a number of factors that have less to do with the rigor or precision of quantitative models than with matters of corporate process and organizational design.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6622.2006.00086.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jacrfn:v:18:y:2006:i:2:p:40-47

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1078-1196

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Applied Corporate Finance is currently edited by Donald H. Chew Jr.

More articles in Journal of Applied Corporate Finance from Morgan Stanley
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().