The author teaches a corporate finance class at NYU Stern and has spent four sessions discussing the end game in business, which is to maximize value through earnings and cash flows. The author believes that profitable and value-creating businesses are better positioned to do good if they choose to. The post focuses on how companies around the world perform in delivering profits, comparing profitability differences across businesses and converting them into returns. There is no consensus on how to measure profitability, but the income statement provides useful information. The author assesses the income statement by looking at multiple measures of earnings at different phases, including earnings per share, net income, operating income, and gross income. The measures of earnings provide different information, such as the effect of share count, taxes, and operating expenses. The author looks at corporate profitability by sector, finding that financial services generate the most net income, followed by industrials and technology. The percentage of firms reporting negative earnings decreases as you move down the income statement. Profit margins, such as gross margins, operating margins, and net margins, provide insight into different aspects of a business model, including unit economics, economies of scale, and capital intensity.