Corporate-finance

Kay Gilley has transformed my ideas about love and fear in the workplace. In "Alchemy of Fear", it became clear to me that in most workplaces, the foundations on which services and attitudes are built are primarily fear-based and serve the corporate structure rather than the human heart. Our programming demands that, as experts and successful companies, we know all the "right" answers and be able to spit them out cleanly and efficiently in order to maintain our status in this culture. The fear of "not knowing" blocks creativity and closes our minds to a diversity of options. Facing this fear and the resulting chaos this unleashes, and transforming them into energy which holds us in "not-knowing", creates opportunity for amazing growth when combined with clear and soulful intent. This book is required reading for all corporate alchemists who want to practice the new magic of success.

I have been stagnent in my life for years. I felt trapped by circumstance. I blamed life and everyone in it for my feeling of being unfullfilled. After reading Ms. Gilley's book I realized that I was afraid, afraid to step out of being who my family thought I was and into the person I knew I was. Ms. Gilley may have written this book for the business world but I feel like she wrote is just for me. It spoke volumns to me and as I followed the path Ms. Gilley laid out my world started changing for the better. I smile and laugh now and the unhappy person that I once was is gone. Bless you Ms. Gilley and God for giving you the words!

Kay Gilley has done it again. She has cut to the bone of the corporate malaise and shown us how to lead by inspiration and intrinsic rewards, a far cry from the traditional approach to management. If we think of corporate culture as a collective hallucination that is generally subscribed to by employees, then here's a formula for waking up to a more functional reality. We can not only do better business, but lead better lives as well. Isn't that why we work in the first place? If you work for a company, buy this book. It will help you make it a healthier place. If you can't change the culture of the company you work for, you may find yourself thinking about finding a more human place to work. If you run a company, it will likely change how you think about and do leadership. Kay is one of our most valuable business thinkers and has the academic credentials and practical experience to back it up. Buy this book now. You'll be glad you did.

This is one really great book in an impressive series of publications. Everything you need to know to have a passing familiarity with accounting statements is presented in easy read and understand fashion. After reading this book, you can use and understand some of the more basic jargon of business, investment and finance.

As is the tradition with every great business book, the text ends with Chapter 7 (you know, of bankruptcy fame!). Each chapter presents a different aspect of financial statements, beginning with the income statement, the balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows, and integrates the three to demonstrate how they can be used for financial analysis, inventory tracking and allocating for depreciation. Each chapter starts by explaining the topic fully, and offers several examples of its use in actual business practice. Although the book is a slim volume, it packs a lot of information, being brief, to the point and insightful all at the same time. Additionally, its small size also means that it will not take up too much space on one's shelf of must-have and must-keep books.

I highly recommend this book to anyone having the need to understand financial statements at a glance. Interested readers should also check out some of the other titles in the Agile Manager Series which may be helpful.

This book is very fine material - if however, you have not previously purchased the two other books these authors have written. This book was a new release in July, 2001. The funny thing about this book is that it is an exact copy of their other two books - "The Profit Game - How to Play - How to Win" and "100 ways to Win The Profit Game". If you have seen these two books, then there is NO reason to purchase the new book. I was very disappointed that there really was not an indication that the new book was just a combination of old books.

This is a concise review about the current events happening in the airline industry. Although it is written a few years ago, it still provides valuable insights into an industry that has been experiencing tremendous change. The book could have been written better. It has some rough reading moments. The book get's more interesting in the second half of the book. Most importantly, it is quite accurate for what a business manager or an investor needs to know about the airline business in a quick 200 page summary! Perfect for learning about many facets of the airline industry in a week-end.

I bought this book the first day out and read through it in about 3 days. I found it quite exceptional for its historical perspective, but not particularly insightful. The author spends the entire book trying very hard not to put any editorial spin on anything which doesn't really make it very readable, but becomes a great reference material down the line.

My initial thought when I finished reading it was that this book may become the Canadian equivalent of "Hard Landing", the book by Thomas Petzinger which has become the de-facto mass market textbook on the impact of US airline deregulation.

This book is definitely a must-have for industry professionals and hardcore airline affectionados, but a casual reader is probably better served to wait for the paperback or deep discount.