Corporate-finance

Book reviews for "Corporate-finance" sorted by average review score:

The Addictive Organization : Why We Overwork, Cover Up, Pick Up the Pieces, Please the Boss, and Perpetuate S

Published in Paperback by HarperSanFrancisco (14 September, 1990)

Author: Anne Wilson Schaef

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The authors are reaching....

Oh boy....interesting analogy, but I believe that the cause of the woes of many organizations cannot be attributed to just this cause. For the sakes of an entertaining analogy it may entertain you.

Outstanding insights and many missing links

The key insight I had when I read this book is that the behavior of organizations when they become "addictive" follows very predictable patterns. There is nothing unique about them. But to a society that is full of "addicts" who create addictive organizations, the principles revealed in this book will stir reactions and opposition. The book is almost too honest, and there lies its power. The book has many new insights and connections and is a lot of fun to read. I found myself chuckling often.

But don't expect the Company to Like it!

In many years in the Corporate life, I wanted the Company to understand that a lot of the problems management was having were caused by...surprise!...management.

This book is excellent in explaining to those of us who hate the insanity of corporate life what is happening and why, and possible remedies.

If you are working, or are listening to a friend or loved one complain over and over about office politics and craziness of different bosses, this book is a great read.

Even the authors, however, will tell you not to expect the Company to listen. They might nod and buy the book, pass them around HR and so on, but in essence, most mid- to large-sized corporations are so big that their dysfunctional behavior cannot be taken apart without the whole thing unfolding. (Or at least, that's what they believe, and so the urge to hold on).

The CEO of a dysfunctional company won't appreciate the insight that each company is as healthy or as ill as their top leader - the further away she/he gets from the goings on, the less s/he may be aware of this, and the less willing to hear this.

My advise is to read the book but expect no "cures". Reading this book helped my sanity (I took early retirement). Anyone suffering inside a corporation can start questioning, seriously, if they want to stay in this dysfunctional "family" (there may not be much of a choise)and if they can get out, start planning. Even if retirement or leaving is years away, planning helps. Get a life outside the Company. Also read "Crazy Bosses" and other books by Anne Wilson Schaef.

Administracion Financiera

Published in Paperback by MC Graw Hill (February, 2003)

Author: Guadalupe Angelica Ochoa Setzer

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Administracion Financiera

Published in Paperback by Prentice Hall (February, 1999)

Author: James C. Van Horne

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Administering the Company Accounting Function

Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall Direct (01 June, 1981)

Author: Jerome V. Bennett

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Adaptive Enterprise: Creating and Leading Sense-And-Respond Organizations

Published in Hardcover by Harvard Business School Press (01 July, 1999)

Author: Stephan H. Haeckel

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In today's fast-changing marketplace, a business can't expect to thrive by just making products and selling them, argues Stephan H. Haeckel in Adaptive Enterprise. "It does not matter how good you are at making widgets if the market for widgets disappears or if your competitors offer dramatically new and improved widgets faster than you can," writes Haeckel, director of strategic studies at IBM's Advanced Business Institute. Instead, for a company to succeed nowadays, says Haeckel, it needs to know how to adapt to customers--even before they themselves know what they want. Haeckel lays out a strategy to create such a "sense-and-respond" approach that will allow companies to move quickly amid change. Among the key steps: companies must use innovative ways to gather information about customer needs. For instance, car manufacturers used video cameras in airport parking lots to discover that people often struggle to lift heavy suitcases over the high lower edges of trunks. In mall parking areas, the cameras revealed that shoppers had nowhere to put soft drinks they just bought. Now, low trunk edges and cupholders are standard features in almost every car. Because "sense-and-respond" is a relatively new business model formulated by Haeckel, the book is heavy on theory and slim on concrete examples. Nevertheless, Adaptive Enterprise has some good ideas for business leaders looking for an edge in a world where rapid change is the norm. --Dan Ring

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Looking for Guidance in eCommerce - its not here

Adaptive Enterprises, the title holds the promise of long term sustainable advantage. Unfortunately the book reads like an extended IBM consulting sales pitch. The central case study (Westpac) is over 10 years old. Surly if this was a break through the book would talk about long term results and how they were able to take over their market by being adaptive. There is little evidence of this. Other examples are internally focused about how IBM's training and education have become more adaptive.

Not enough detail to warrant the read or to get a real idea of how you would implement the concepts.

If you are looking for guidance on eCommerce and competing in hyper competition. It is not here.

The Future of Service Industries

Adaptive Enterprise covers two separate but related topics - mass customisation (customisation at mass production costs) and agility (capability to deal with changes in the business environment and the associated high levels of uncertainty). The book is primarily focused on service industries, where services can often be customised through organisational (re)configuration (hence the agility dimension). Most importantly, the book covers the difficulties of moving from make and sell to sense and respond - difficulties often ignored in cookbook style business books. The book also addresses application of systems thinking to enterprise design - an important topic that is not covered enough in business books. Those interested in agility will also find Appendix B useful. Here one finds a decision process to use when one is faced with significant uncertainty. Overall the book is refreshing in its honesty. After reading this book you might also want to read some follow-ups: Mass Customisation (Joseph Pine); Agile Virtual Enterprise (Ted Goranson) and Agile Manufacturing (Paul T. Kidd).

Paul T. Kidd

A practical prescription for radical change.

Haeckel has written one of the most thoughtful and useful books on the enterprise available today. By use of simple metaphor, Haeckel makes the distinction between the existing build-and-sell model and his proposed sense-and-respond model. Build-and-sell firms are like bus companies with fixed routes and schedules designed to meet predicted customer demand. Sense-and-respond firms are like taxi companies that dispatch cabs in response to customer demand. Although the concepts are well presented and readily understood, Haeckel offers the reader no easy answers!

Hackel avoids using the usual metaphors of complexity science but instead adopts and explains the term "adaptive enterprise". This choice enables him to focus upon three essential elements of business - governance, leadership, and commitment.

Beware! Adopting his customer focus concepts will produce radical organizational change. For instance, "Sense-and-Respond firms do not forecast demand for products and services. But they do place selective bets upon the stability of fundamental customer needs and on what capabilities should be in their modular response repertoire." The need to create modular organizations that support modular products - a point often misunderstood in practice by even progressive build-and-sell firms - is well made in Appendix A.

Haeckel frequently returns to the theme of a phased transition to a sense-and-respond model and demonstrates a profound understanding of the risk and reward of change in an existing organization.

Adams Streetwise Complete Business Plan: Writing a Business Plan Has Never Been Easier! (Adams Streetwise Series)

Published in Paperback by Adams Media Corporation (01 October, 1998)

Author: Bob Adams

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Easy use

This book is for a start up small business. Easy, walk through, step by step planning. Good conservative insights of what an investor or bank would be looking for. Favors the service industry.

It is designed to provide an annual plan ... not a five year plan. There is little in the book for advice in an ongoing buisness.

The verbage, however, is useful for any business plan.

Good, Simple Guide

This is an excellent book that will walk you through the process of writing your business plan. It covers all of the major sections of creating a business plan including Executive Summary, Market Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Strategy, Sales and Marketing, and so on. For each area, it asks clear questions, offers guidance to answering them, and offers different examples and formats that could be appropriate for different types of businesses. This is also one of the only business planning books that offers help with the financials!

Also, the book is well laid out and organized. It can be easily skimmed or read cover-to-cover with the major points highlighted well with excellent graphics. The sample business plans are very simple but concise and well written. Though they are not "real" examples, they can help provide guidance and get the juices flowing. Do not expect the book to make you a master of business planning, but as a tool to get started it is excellent. Furthermore, it can help you get thinking strategically and to get you asking yourself the right questions.

The only real negative about the book is that it does not tell you what types of formats or plans are appropriate for different types of businesses, and different types of financing.

Excellent Step-by-Step Guide for Writing a Winning Plan!

I am a very proficient writer who found the task of writing a business plan for my consulting practice overwhelming. I knew what I needed to say, yet getting that perfect concise wording proved more than a notion. After reviewing several business plan "how-to" books, I found that only Bob Adams has made writing a first-rate business plan painless and pleasurable.

Whether a start-up or existing business, Bob has done the "scratch work" for each section of your plan and provided a wide variety of pre-written text options for you to tailor to your specific situation. In addition, he walks you through every step of creating those much scrutinized financial documents, item by item, giving formulas when necessary so that nothing is omitted or misunderstood.

It has been 18 monnths since I used Bob's book to construct my initial business plan. The results was a "living" document that has served me better than I ever anticipated.