PV and FV

While it might be interesting to look at what $10000 today will be in 20 years, in business we are more often concerned with the question, “If I receive $10000 in 5 years, what is that worth today?” To do this, we use a present value formula: pv= fv*(1/((1+i)^n)). Based on the interest rate and number of periods, you can calculate what the value of $10000 in the future would be today.
How do you feel about the usefulness of these types of calculations?