Hello Savio,

I am humbled by your continued interest in the things I write. Thank you for always taking the time out to share your views - even when we disagree : ) - about what I write.

So that folks reading the comment stream understand what I had communicated about the income statement, let me add a wee bit of detail. When I read the income statement I read it as a reporting of payment to stakeholders. I believe that the order of these payments is very telling, but others do disagree with me : ) At the very top you have a payment to the business by customers in the form revenues; at cost of goods sold you have a payment to suppliers; at the sales, general, and administrative line you have a payment to employees and PR/marketing folks; at the research and development line you have a payment to the teams charged with growing the top line in the future; at the interest expense level you have payments to debt holders; at the income tax expense level a payment to governments; and then to shareholders. In short, management engages in a very difficult task of balancing these many stakeholders' interests. If you try and increase shareholder value by squeezing suppliers they may stop doing business with you and can interrupt your supply chains. If you try and lower the quality of your products customers may stop paying the company revenues. And so forth. Management cannot get away with too much pressure on any of the line items for long, else they destroy the value of the operating model.

And, as Savio says, yes, read the 10-K and 10-Qs, too!

Yours, in service,

Jason