Business quality is determined by one metric: return on invested capital
The financial purpose of a business is to generate over its lifetime a higher return for its shareholders than what they would have gotten by investing in risk-free options (such as government bonds).

Imagine there is an entrepreneur with a business proposal and she requires $100 as the initial investment. She reaches out to you and pitches her idea to seek your investment. To make a decision, you’ll probably analyze and estimate how much return you’d get in return for the money you give to her. If you usually get 6% interest annually in a savings bank account (which happens in India), you would expect a higher return than that from the entrepreneur (especially since there’s a risk of losing your entire $100 while your money in the bank is virtually risk-free). ...