Return on invested capital (ROIC) is the appropriate measure
of
profitability for strategy formulation, not to mention for equity
investors. Return on sales or the growth rate of profits fail to
account for the capital required to compete in the industry. Here,
we utilize earnings before interest and taxes divided by average
invested capital less excess cash as the measure of ROIC. This
measure controls for idiosyncratic differences in capital structure
and tax rates across companies and industries.