The YouTube channel of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) already has the video summary of the act of admission as full academician of Joan Massons, doctor of Business Administration and Management, which was held on January 29 in the Assembly Hall of the Catalan labour National Work Promotion, headquarters of the Academy. The recipient read the entry speech “Paradigmas financieros en tela de juicio” (Financial paradigms in question). Full academician and renowned economist José María Gay de Liébana answered on behalf of the RAED.

In his work, the new academician questions and invalidates, in a reasoned way, some of the reference indicators in business analysis and auditing, such as ebitda, the ROCE ratio, the ebitda/interest or ebitda/sales ratios, the self-sustaining growth rate (SGR) or the WACC index, usually known as the weighted average cost of financial resources. With specific and didactic examples, the academician dismantles the rigor of these mechanisms, which he usually considers deceptive.

The new academician is a professor of Finance at the ESADE Business School and collaborator of the University of Deusto, the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, the Portuguese Catholic University and the University of Chile. He is the author of monographs on finance, marketing and sales and analysis and financial strategy that have become reference guides for students and professionals in each of these specialisms. His career as a teacher earned him, in 2012, the prize for Academic Excellence awarded by the Catalan Association of Accounting and Management.

Video summary

Complete video