When we published the first edition of Paying for Performance in 1997, the business climate was very different than it is today. At that time, the . financial markets were in the midst of an unprecedented multiyear boom. Many established companies were delivering record profits, but perhaps more important, a myriad of “new economy” marvels were rewriting long-standing rules about the relationship between earnings and market value, the relative importance of growth and profitability, and the definition of what constitutes successful business performance. Since then, the air has escaped from the Internet bubble and both old and new economy companies have been forced to.
