The NEW ROI: Return on Individuals is a refreshingly clear and simple explanation of something that has eluded many scholars as well as the entire world of financial accounting and valuation. The book blends innovative ideas and concepts with practical and surprisingly easy to grasp stories, punctuated by hard number metrics and formulas.. This book is for everyone who can see that people truly create and drive value but have been frustrated with modern reporting and accounting methods that measure only workforce cost not its’ value add. If only modern accounting were written in such a clear and compelling way. 

CEO, Human Capital Management Institute

Dave’s book is fun to read and examines the soft issues of organizational science with the cold, hard “science” of valuation. He takes on a myriad of topics that we can all relate to – from purple squirrels to toxic employees to the customer service rep that goes above and beyond and is the glue to the organization. While not always easy to value, Mr. Bookbinder is able to explain and bring to the forefront the issues concerning the human capital component in determining corporate valuation. Mr. Bookbinder hits on many of the big issues in modern day corporate America. He examines how to create a corporate culture, finding the “right” employees, defining your corporate culture, building trust. All of these are difficult issues that all managers and organizations find challenging every day. I cut out the quote from Gandhi on positive thoughts and keep it on my desk. His book is full of helpful anecdotes, bullet point lists and additional links that all organizations and managers will find to be a valuable resource. The chapter on Grit and the Grit score (I was a 4.8) are fun and useful for people in all walks of life. Mr. Bookbinder’s last two chapters provide rigor and potential quantitative approaches toward measuring the impact of employee satisfaction and engagement upon valuation. I highly recommend this book for business owners, managers, employees and of course valuation experts. The book will open a lot of eyes and add several new considerations to valuation and the importance of employees. Hopefully, this book will help the reader find and identify the “acorns” that attract that elusive purple squirrel. 

As a practicing lawyer and business person, The NEW ROI makes sense to me on so many levels. In our businesses, we’re measuring thousands of data points and plunking them into an algorithm to drive decisions. There’s nothing wrong with that, so long as we understand that the algorithm cannot do it all. Human talent matters. Human insight matters. The NEW ROI gives a voice to the necessary human part of the “business success” equation, and does so in terms that every business person will understand. And, its push for meaningful financial reporting of ROI opens up interesting challenges for the audit, accounting, and legal professionals. Read it. 

Maybe you can’t put a price on love, but we all know how expensive a divorce can be. In The NEW ROI, David shares an expert perspective on how to value the seemingly intangible bond between employee and employer, and how to rethink our definition of ‘value’ when it comes to human capital. Companies are gradually moving away from treating the workforce as overhead, and tapping into the latent potential of people. David’s NEW ROI provides some solid approaches for bridging the gap between the warm-and-fuzzy approach of HR and the brutalist perspective of accounting.