Capital-investment-decisions

Despite the nice title of the book, it is not worth a $105.00. The decision making models are overviews and are very brief. This book lacks numeracy. The case studies in my opinion are underdeveloped. The author spends time talking about strategic partnerships and the need for venture portfolio companies, to develop them, but he doesn't provide any examples of those that worked. There is some information to be gleaned from this book, but if you can get it for under $30, then buy it. Otherwise at $105, you will be very disappointed. This book is totally overpriced. If I could photocopy it and return it, I would have.

Covers financing from a variety of angles, with a number of different thought points I had not considered on the tax and workforce side. Liked the focus on biotech and pharma as well.

At the outset, it is important to mention that my special area of interest is cost of capital with finite cash flows (CF). And in my review, it is this point that I would like to address.
In chapter 10, compared to similar books, the author presents a good detailed exposition on the cost of capital. However, my big complaint is that the author assumes that the formulas on the cost of capital that are derived from CF in perpetuity simply carry over to finite CF.
In practice, we derive finite cash flows from financial statements and on grounds of simplicity, one may use the formulas from CF in perpetuity. However, it is not self-evident that the formulas from CF in perpetuity are relevant and appropriate to finite CFs. This may or may not be true, but the equivalence certainly needs to be demonstrated with some simple numerical examples.

The book deals with the emerging markets' specific problems of investment valuation and financial decisioning. Elementary financial methodologies are modified to capture the different variabeles in emerging markets. It is an easy to read book but I would have liked it to be more in-depth than it is now. It gives, however, a nice structured view on emerging markets valuation theory.

This book does NOT offer 'A practical guide to valuation' but a theoretical,oldfashioned discussion of the 'Metrics War'and some empirical research on EVA, Compensation and CFROI-Fade.

My rating has got these origins: Empirical research on Compensation,EVA and CFROI-Fade: A+. Discussion of EVA/CFROI: D-. Terminology: D value for 'Hands-on-valuation': F- Structure: F- Style: F-.

This book does contain interesting empirical research on EVA etc, but it does not offer 'A practical Guide to Implementation' because it does not contain a STAGE-Approach. Its terminology differs from any other book I've read, you must often guess, which formulas the authors used, because they did not have the courtesy to express their formulas. Some formulas are wrong nad their discussion of the 'metrics war' betweenn EVA and CFROI lags 5 years behind reality. They attack old methods of CFROI,which Boston Consulting and Holt Value published 5 (!) years ago. They fail to know, that BCG have refined CVA/CFROI and that BAYER. Lufthansa,and VEBA have implemented these refined CFROI-techniques,which are way better, than the old methods, which the book attacks.

Moreover, this book is terrible to read due to a lack of structure, the absence of clear definitions, the lack of formulas, a wordy style,which exhausts your nerves, and many value judgements....

Kudos to S. David Young and Stephen F. O'Byrne, management consultants who largely steer clear of their industry's usual empty catchphrases and superficial hype. Instead, their lucid explanation of the importance of shareholder value takes center stage. The heftiness of EVA and Value-Based Management may be daunting, but most readers will be satisfied with Part I's strategic overview. The concepts reappear in Part II accompanied by a wealth of technical details, calculations and case studies to help finance professionals with nitty-gritty implementation of EVA (Economic Value Added) programs. The book honestly assesses EVA's power to motivate managers, noting that some companies just are not well-suited for this performance metric. We from getAbstract prescribe this book to corporate executives who have overdosed on consultant jargon but still want to drive value growth in their companies, and to finance specialists who seek a comprehensive roadmap to EVA implementation.

As an author, speaker and consultant on these topics, I highly recommend this book. Not only have the authors discussed the pros and cons of a number of approaches thoughfully and concisely, they also expand the level of understanding related to the calculations in an accessible way. Their book discusses both implementation issues and the nitty gritty of the mechanics. In sum, the book takes the reader to the next level of understanding. I highly recommend this book.