Our understanding of financial performance and control is in a state of evolution. Traditional financial performance analysis rests heavily on the concepts of cost of capital and return on investment (ROI). Interested readers may review extended discussions of these in my previous two articles, "Cost of capital establishes benchmark for evaluation of investments," and "Financial performance metrics guide owners, managers." (April 15, 2004 Page 77 and June 15, 2004 Page 69, or go to www.ophthalmologytimes.com )

Economic value added reflects long-term benefits of investments, projects