the 2015 results both disappointed and puzzled Carl Randall. Return on assets fell from 5.7 percent to 5.4 percent, and gross return dropped from 9.5 percent to 9.4 percent. At the same time, return on sales (net income divided by sale) rose from 5.1 percent to 5.5 percent, and return on owners' equity also increased, from 9.1 to 9.2 percent. The Professional Service Division easily exceeded the 12 percent gross return target; but Industrial Products' return was only 6.9 percent (see Exhibit 4). These results prompted Randall to say to Hubbard
you know, Henry, I've been a marketer most of my career, but, until recently, I thought I understood the notion of return on investment. Now I see in 2015 our profit margin was up and our earnings-per-share were up; yet two of your return on investment figures were down; return on invested capital went down, and return on owners' equity went up. I just don't understand these discrepancies.
Moreover, there seems to be a lot more tension among our managers the last two years. The general manager of Professional Services seems to be doing a good job, and she’s happy as a lark about the praise I’ve given her. But the general manager of Industrial Products looks daggers at me every time we meet. And last week, when I was eating lunch with the division manager at Consumer Products, the product development manager came over to our table and rally burned my ears over a new product proposal of hers you rejected the other day.
I’m wondering if should follow up on the idea that Karen Kraus in Personnel brought back from the two-day organization development workshop she attended over at the university. She thinks we ought to have a one-day off-site retreat of all the corporate and divisional managers to talk over this entire return on investment matter.