Productive assets such as farms, real estate and, yes, business ownership produce wealth — lots of it. Most owners of such properties will be rewarde… - Warren Buffett

Most institutional investors in the early 1970s, on the other hand, regarded business value as of only minor relevance when they were deciding the prices at which they would buy or sell. This now seems hard to believe. However, these institutions were then under the spell of academics at prestigious business schools who were preaching a newly-fashioned theory: the stock market was totally efficient, and therefore calculations of business value — and even thought, itself — were of no importance in investment activities. (We are enormously indebted to those academics: what could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest — whether it be bridge, chess, or stock selection than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy?)

Αν όλο το παιχνίδι είχε να κάνει με το τι έγινε στο παρελθόν, τότε οι πιο πλούσιοι άνθρωποι θα ήταν βιβλιοθηκάριοι.

It's simply to say that managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers is the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.