This note provides a brief history of the origins of return-on-investment measurement at Du Pont and its close link with operations management. The Du Pont chart approach to calculating return on assets is described, and the chart is presented in work-sheet form to facilitate application by persons unfamiliar with the financial concepts. Use of ROA and ROE for performance measurement is discussed, and average measures of two samples of top U.S. and Japanese companies are presented. This note may be used with "ROA Chart Work Sheet" (OM-0300) or alone.
