How do I balance short and long term?

Some executives tell us that while ROC is a nice concept, how does it help a firm make a profit, today? It¹s important to remember that the Return on Customer argument does not imply that increases in lifetime values are any more important than cash. Far from it. LTV, by its very nature, is already a diminished version of cash, because it is based on discounted future cash flows. Nevertheless, short-term results are more important to some businesses than others. The right way to quantify the intensity of your company¹s preference for the short term is simply to raise your discount rate. The more important the short term is, or the more risky it is to wait for long-term results, the higher discount rate you should use. Our problem is that because they completely ignore long-term value creation (i.e., changes in LTV), most businesses are in effect using an unnaturally high discount rate some even use a rate greater than 100 percent.