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Free course · Bartley J. Madden
Value Creation
Thinking
How great companies create value that lasts — purpose, culture, and the life cycle of the firm. Three videos. About 76 minutes. Free.
Taking the course on your own? Use Individuals. Representing a university, institute, company, or other organization? Use Groups so your cohort can access the course together.
The idea
Shareholder value is the result, not the purpose.
Why do some companies create value for decades while others fade? Bartley J. Madden has worked that question since 1970. His answer is the Pragmatic Theory of the Firm: purpose and culture, connected all the way to long-term performance.
Amazon, Walmart, Nvidia, Microsoft, Nucor and others show what it takes to build a firm that lasts.
“Don’t be turned off by the word ‘theory.’ A viable theory helps us see more clearly and decide better.”
What you’ll learn
It starts with a four-part purpose.
02
Survive and prosper
Keep gaining efficiency and innovating — earning at least the cost of capital.
03
Build trust
Win-win relationships with everyone the firm depends on.
04
Care for future generations
Environmental sustainability that starts at the design stage.
The framework
How value actually gets built.
01
Knowledge-building culture
The critical factor in long-term performance — and the loop that surfaces outdated assumptions.
02
Life cycle and CFROI
A clearer picture of the firm than earnings-per-share growth or EVA, stage by stage.
03
What investors expected
Shareholder returns explained by comparing expected performance with what the firm delivered.
04
Flatter organizations
Why command-and-control is giving way — and what that asks of boards and management.
The course
Three lessons.
About 76 minutes, free. Register below to get access.
01·25 min
The Pragmatic Theory of the Firm
The firm as a system: four-part purpose, the life-cycle framework, and the Knowledge Building Loop.
BB&T · Eastman Kodak · The Wright brothers
Watch
02·23 min
Knowledge Building and Value Creation
What decades of track records reveal about culture — including why Walmart beat the S&P 500 13-fold from 1980 to 1990.
Intuit · Amazon · Nvidia · Walmart
Watch
03·28 min
Culture and Organizational Structure
How trust, shared values, and purpose hold a knowledge-building culture together — and the shift to flatter firms.
Deere · Microsoft · Nucor · Haier · Bayer
WatchWhy it matters
A clearer way to see the firm.
01
Short-termism destroys value
Life-cycle language gives management a way to stop dancing to Wall Street’s quarterly tune.
02
It moves past polarized debates
Shareholder versus stakeholder, capitalism versus socialism — both look different once you see how firms create value.
03
Economic freedom matters
People in the freest quarter of countries live about 17 years longer than those in the least free.
04
Work becomes meaningful
A culture that lets people experiment and solve real problems makes work more than a paycheck.
Who it’s for
Executives
Cultures that innovate, not just hit the quarter.
Boards
The right priorities at each life-cycle stage.
Investors
Think like owners, not traders.
Founders
Free enterprise as a force for flourishing.
Students
Open access, already used in classrooms.
The curious
How firms actually create prosperity.
Instructor
Bartley J. Madden
Engineer, then a soldier in Vietnam, then Berkeley — where the questions behind this course began. In 1970 he co-founded Callard, Madden & Associates, serving institutional investors.
He developed the life-cycle valuation framework and CFROI. Most large money managers now use that framework through a global database from UBS HOLT.
Author of Value Creation Principles (Wiley, 2020): the Pragmatic Theory of the Firm, from purpose to sustainable capitalism.
Books by Bartley J. Madden
Background reading
Wealth Creation: A Systems Mindset for Building and Investing in Businesses for the Long Term
Bartley J. Madden · John Wiley & Sons · 2010
Value Creation Principles: The Pragmatic Theory of the Firm Begins with Purpose and Ends with Sustainable Capitalism
Bartley J. Madden · Wiley · 2020
Value Creation Insights: A Foundational Understanding of How Firms Build Knowledge and Create Value
Bartley J. Madden · Amplify Publishing · 2026
Questions
Before you start
With Principled Business
Start thinking like a value creator.
Created with Principled Business so investors, executives, and founders can put these ideas into how they decide, allocate capital, and lead.
Register as an individualRegister as a group
Groups is for universities, institutes, companies, and other organizations bringing a cohort to the course.