The Best-Run Companies Have The Highest Revenue Per Employee (RPE)—Or Do They?

A deep dive into how Revenue Per Employee (RPE) varies by industry, why REITs dominate this metric, and how companies like Apple have used it to evolve over time.

Revenue per employee (RPE) is often viewed as a proxy for efficiency. The logic seems straightforward, though: the more revenue a company generates per worker, the more productive its workforce must be. This metric is widely cited in comparing companies within and across industries, but does it truly signal operational excellence? Or is it a misleading …