Corporate-finance

This is an excellent, informative, easy-to-read reference book. I refer to it as a reference book as opposed to an end-to-end text book because you don't have to start at the beginning and read the chapters sequentially in order to understand what you are reading. In today's business world of capitalilzing on your supply chain by measuring internal processes as well as customer/vendor performances, executives need a tool such as this book to use as a quick "help desk" to learn how to measure complete processes to see how profitably resources are being deployed. Having a tool that explains how to figure out which of your customers, vendors, and internal processes are profitable to your business is invaluable.

This is an very informative, book on ABC. It is good reference book for implementing Activity based costing. Today's business world of capitalizing supply chain by measuring internal processes as well as customer/vendor performances, managers need a tool and this helps to learn how to measure complete processes to see how profitably the resources are being utilized and could be measured so that We can see and comprehend the Profit line.

This book is an excellent resource for learning and understanding ABC accounting. Unlike many web articles and white papers, Gary's book is a practical not academic approach from someone who has been there, done that, and has the t-shirt. It's filled with lots of explanatory diagrams which help to visualize the concepts presented and are useful when presenting on a high-level to executives under time constraints for reading. Chapter 1 clearly presents ABC basic concepts while Chapter 2 is a direct follow-on expanding the depth and breath of those basic concepts. Chapter 3 addresses the question that all senior management wants to know: Are all your trading partners worth it to you? Subsequent chapters focus on typical ABC modeling applications most relevant to organizations. Chapter 6 gives a very good cross-comparison of project/work order costing vs. ABC that is very helpful to project-centric organizations in understanding how ABC differentiates itself. Chapter 7 succinctly places ABC software in the reengineering software spectrum without getting lost in a technological morass. Chapter 9 addresses rapid prototyping for getting initial results from the methodology that can be tweaked iteratively to grow a more sophisticated ABC model. In conclusion, I highly recommend this book and look forward to Gary's "ABC Management - Making it Work" which is next on my ABC must-read list.

I've read several books about ABC/M, and I just can say that Gary Cokins is an excellent writter, Gary explains the concepts very clearly and then lays out a detailed and well thought out strategy for implementation. The graphics are excellent, When you already read this book, you can review it as a presentation just looking the figures and graphics inside.

I am implementing ABC/ABM in a medium sized multinational company, and this is required reading for my teams. I've read most of the comprehensive ABC/ABM books, and this is by far the best. Gary explains the concepts very clearly and then lays out a detailed and well thought out strategy for implementation. The book is also loaded with illustrations that are literally a blueprint for making ABC/ABM work. If you're doing ABC/ABM this is a must.

This is a clearly written and an exceptionally well illustrated explanation of Activity-Based Costing. If you are only going to read one book on ABC, this would be a good one to have.

The Activity Based Costing Methodology showed in this book, by itself, doesn't provide full answers to the challenges Financial Institutions have been facing.

Of course, some simple and commom questions are addressed, adapted from manufacturing knowledge, but complex ones aren't.

For example, the question "how can I compute IT costs to products, services, customers, distribution chanells?" can be answered in a correct way.

As a "growing high tech consumer", financial services industry needs valuable answers to these questions.

Since 1994, we've performing projects related to implementation of Advanced Cost and Budget Systems using ABC Costing. Recently, we've perfomed projects in 2 global Banks (top 10, assets), where we can focus in answer in a correct way these complex questions.

However, I think the book is usefull for starting discussion about the theme in the financial institutions environment.

Thank you.

Christiano Mendonca, Brasil

Activity-Based Costing and management information in financial institutions is an area I have been interested in for many years. It is difficult in one book to provide answers to every eventuality, but I have enjoyed the opportunity to provide some insights from my (and my colleagues) that may suggest ideas to others facing similar problems. I have included a basic methodology and guidance that we have found useful, but as with all MIS projects these tools do need to be tailored for each individual organisation. I hope you find it useful and I look forward to reading your reviews in the future.

This thought-provoking book is among the best I've read on transformation management. The authors characterize change actions (both personal and organizational) as being comparable to four Olympic events: the sprint (fast and brief), the high jump (also brief but complex as well), the marathon (long but uncomplicated), and the decathlon (long and complex). After reading examples presented in the book, readers can determine which Olympic event best matches their situation and lead/act with that analogy in mind. Approaching change with this kind of clarity, I think, will mean the difference between survival and its alternative for many organizations. In addition to mental clarity, the book provides examples of successful transformations made possible through quality communications (one corporation's vision was depicted on a mural), sharpened focus, and the ability to recognize opportunity no matter what guise it may come in. Highly recommended!