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Profit ... derivative of money cost and money price.
The simple definition of profit is based on money cost and money price. In financial accounting and reporting to corporate stakeholders, profit is the key measure that drives everything.
But profit is more complex in modern financial accounting. Money profit is no longer just the delta between price and profit but might be something else. The accounts may not simply record assets at their cost but on some other basis ... including “mark to market”! This is a wonderful device for taking into account unrealized profit ... simply by recording their value in the balance sheet at a price that the assets could be sold for based on the present market. Fifty years ago, a practice like this would have been banned absolutely based on the prevailing accounting principles ... but lobbying and legislation has overturned old principles and replaced them with laws and rules that are convenient ... in a rising market ... and very dangerous at any other time! Convenience is not a good principle of accounting.
Profit is at the center of the capitalist economic construct ... and is a useful metric as it relates money revenue with money costs, and serves as a useful and practical proxy for performance and productivity. But profit is is not a good proxy for socio-economic performance and the way quality of life in a community changes ... nor the sustainability of the community. In fact, thoughtless optimizing or maximizing of profit is a fairly certain way of creating an unsustainable future.
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Value adding ... derivative of value and cost.
If, rather than just money, the metric of performance is value adding ... that is the increment of value from an activity, then there is a very much better measure of progress and performance. Value ... that is value to society ... is almost totally excluded from modern financial and economic metrics. The reasons are many including (1) it has a subjective dimension that makes valuation difficult; and, (2) it has a devastating impact on the norms of financial valuation of corporate activity.
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Cash flow ... derivative of money cost and money inflows.
Cash flow is a metric that relates to sustainability in a world where money is the medium of exchange. Cash is used to pay bills. Money inflows may come from revenues which are a function of price, or they come from financing or some change in the balance sheet like sale of assets. Activities that result in a persistent cash deficit will fail in due course, simply because the money runs out. The timing of the demise of the activities may be delayed by borrowing ... but that also will fail in due course.
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Sustainability.
Activities that have value adding positive and cash flow being positive are sustainable ... and desirable. Activities that are cash flow positive and profitable are money sustainable but maybe not socio-economically sustainable ... and these activities have come to dominate rich developed economies in the post World War II period. By ignoring critical issues of value destruction society had the impression of wealth being created ... but much was mere puffery and the balloons were bound to break. But worse, society built the appearance of wealth while setting the stage for potentially catastrophic global disasters in the future.
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