Corporate-finance

Another try at using Kaplan & Norton's great two masterpiece books. If you love to buy every book in the field get this book. Otherwise, do not waste your money because there are newer and more updated books. The Balanced Scorecard is already in its third generation, using Systems Modeling with I THINK or POWERSIM, and this book is already past its glory.

I've been consulting for 30+ years and find the concepts in this book refreshing. In fact, the problem with most scorecards is that they miss the linkages that Dr. Schiemann and Dr. Lingle address in this book: People, Culture and Discipline.

I especially like the detailed evalution of important linkages to make measurements work. These authors write clearly and succinctly with real case studies, not theory.

Use this book as a reference guide of what to do when Norton and Kaplan fails.

Knowledge-worker productivity is the biggest of the 21st century management challenges. Companies can do a great deal to improve it. This book exemplifies a key element: the measurement of non financial drivers of financial success. The 'Initiatives Grid' (Table 8-1) provides guidelines how to review strategic performance measures with the board of directors or parent organization. The process of cascading the measures throughout the organization and embedding the measures into the leadership process is key. The text gives a clear view of the bricks that put together a balanced set of performance indicators, that any organization could use to focus executive teams and human resources on a unified strategy. Companies may benefit from strict use of this system, readers will gain much from applying the insights without complete implementation.

This is the greates and most exciting book about taxes that I have ever read. I must admit that it was a thrilling page turner from beginning to end and that I just could not put it down until I was finished. A MUST BUY for everyone!

Purington and Butler have succeeded by detailing how to implement the strategy they so clearly recommend in the book. The book sets forth in an orderly and easily understood manner the steps that will greatly improve any training department. If there is any one book that will pull it all together for the training professional, this is the one. A must read book.

This book provides a step by step process to make any training department successful. The book is written in easy to understand language with detailed success strategy for creating the ideal learning organization. Most training books fail to inform the reader how to execute the strategy they are recommending. Purington and Butler have done a masterful job putting the detail in the puzzle. Outstanding and a must read book for all training professionals!

Having spent the last four years of our lives being taught to think about every business problem in a particular way, it was great to read a business book that encourages you to "think outside of the box." We have read many textbooks in our time at University, and it was refreshing to read a book that expressed clear and simple ideas that we will remember after we graduate. "Built To Last" started off strong by 'shattering' the 12 well-known "myths" that they teach us in school. The book then continued with the author's model that is based around the premise of preserving the core ideology, and stimulating progress within the organization; it uses simple points that build on one another to create a first-rate framework. The authors make their points at the beginning of each chapter and then build on them with numerous examples of 'visionary' companies...Some of our favorite points were:
- The true definition of a core ideology; including the distinction between a core purpose and core values;
- Encourage trying lots of stuff and keeping what works;
- And, "The Genius of the And"...it is possible to have two things at once.
Although, this book was primarily targeted towards entrepreneurs and CEO's, we found that we could use this book for our future career search and within our daily lives. For example, the chapter titled Cults and Cultures outlined the extraordinary commitment employees have to their particular organization; Personally, we don't think we have what it takes to be a true "Nordie," but it gave us insight into what characteristics and traits to be looking for in an organization we would like to work for.
Some of the inferior traits of the book are that there were some parts in the novel where the authors seem to stretch their examples to fit within their framework, and they came across as being slightly bias to their own theories. We also found that they never mention the same company in every chapter, which made it harder to follow and also harder to believe that every visionary company fit all aspects of their model. However, overall, this book is an easy read, with a simple model that makes sense. It uses interesting companies and is backed up by 6 years of intense research. We recommend this book to any student who is looking to think on different terms than what we are being taught in school.

"Built to Last" is one of those rare non-fiction books you just can't put down. Unequivocally the best "business" book I have ever read, "Built to Last" by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras is a compelling, thorough, well-written, unprecedented look at what it takes to "create and achieve long-lasting greatness as a visionary corporation." Unlike many current "trendy" management and "business success" books out on the market, Collins and Porras differentiate "Built to Last" by using their own six-year comprehensive, well-documented research study as the basis for further analysis.

What separates "Built to Last" is that each visionary company (3M, HP, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart...) is contrasted with a comparison company founded in the same time, in the same industry, with similar founding products and markets (Norton, TI, Colgate, Ames...). Perhaps what I found most intriguing were some of the twelve "shattered myths" they go on to counter throughout the book:

1. It takes a great idea to start a great company
2. Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders
3. Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values
4. Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning
5. The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition

As a current business student with a summer internship in a "visionary company," I was amazed as their careful analysis rang true. This is one book I can highly recommend to any student, professional, or business educator looking for those not-so-subtle traits that characterize a truly visionary company.

The next time you see a book that casts a business leader as a mythical or heroic figure, go back to this book and see if the leader passes the 'Level 5 Leader' tests. Sandy Weill, for example, fails that test miserably, since he cares nothing for his company or its employees, and only about feeding his insatiable appetite for personal profit, self-aggrandizement, and great food, in that order. Weill is an example of the so-called celebrity leaders who are very reluctant to groom and name their successors, since they care far more about holding onto their power than for the longer-term welfare of the company and its employees. The last thing you'd see these quasi-leaders do is sacrifice their power or money for longer benefit of the company. Eisner is another perfect example of Emperor-CEO who got paid obscene amount of money and drove out top talents from Disney, while its business and stock prices languished badly.

A perfect business book - erudite, entertaining, and relevant - and a must-read for anyone who ever dreamed of becoming (or simply working for) the true business leader.

Let's face facts: home depot is known for abysmal service and really, really shoddy haphazard installations. They probably spend more on defending lawsuits than on store development. This book makes them look like such wizards, such brilliant and benevelont businessmen, when in fact they have done studies to see what the minimum level of customer service they can get away with is - and then tried to stretch that envelope.

I am sure Ken Lay could write books full of accolades to Enron. It would be just as true, and just as much a waste of time and money to read.

and very well told, which really makes this book a fast read (I had a hard time putting it down).

Provides, IMO, valuable information that will be useful for any business owner. I am glad these guys took the time to share their story, and I hope I get to meet them one day.

What a great way to spend a rainy weekend. You'll love it as it reads like a novel. And you'll never look at Home Depot the same way.

The story of The Home Depot is one of the greatest success stories of our time. Finally, we can all learn the keys to this success from the two great leaders who built it. This engaging book gives us the inside story. One great lesson is the importance of values for success in business and life. The book gives us a clear sense of the values that drive The Home Depot and its exemplary leaders. Co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank show by this book another key tool to their success -- read this book and you will see that great leaders can and should be great communicators.

This review refers to McLaughlin's superb earlier edition The Entrepreneur's Guide To Building A Better Business Plan.

More than a guide to developing a business plan I found this book provided practical input to planning a business in general. Unlike many texts dealing with this subject, this book has the practical tone of someone who had done it before. McLaughlin asks good questions and makes many suggestions with regard to addressing business strategy and tactical issues. He gets right into the detail of planning with an extensive chapter on writing department plans. Another chapter discusses partnering as a potential new business strategy. The book includes case studies, and discusses some particular examples of both business success and failure.

McLaughlin is an engineer who was involved in the early days of the disk drive industry, and is one of the founders of the disk drive industry's trade association. He later became an industry analyst and published a weekly newsletter on the industry. The book evolved out of work done in writing his doctoral thesis.

Though many of the sources are now dated, the book includes a bibliography useful to business planning including sources on market research, writing business plans, and reading financial statements.

I would recommend this book to anyone planning a new business or overhauling an existing business or division. Too bad the book is no longer in print, however I found that my local public library had copies.

I was looking for a book on how to create trust. The title of the book, and the idea that fundamental change only happens in a culture of trust, seemed to be exactly, what I was looking for. The book contains chapter after chapter just a description of a dream world. The plenty of examples are simply narrative stories that are full of fairy tale. The examples to show, what doesn't work are simply fiction by the author. Anybody can make any point and invent a story to proove that point.

I couldn't read the book entirely. Reading a few chapters and picking interesting spots didn't show a single concrete step on creating trust, or concept on how trust is created.

Read the title, that's about the only valuable part of the book and save the money.

If you are looking for a "how" book, look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a "why" book this is the one. Why is trust important? Why are relationships essential? Why follow the relationship-based approach? The answers lie here. It is a well documented and, I believe, important book to read.

In this book, Maggie Mort examines the history of the Trident submarine program in Britain from early 1980s to 1998, focusing on the management and workers of Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. (VSEL) and particularly the shipyard operations in Barrow.

The Trident is a large submarine designed to carry eighteen submarine-launched ballistic missiles tipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) nuclear warheads. Tridents would replace the smaller Polaris submarines in the 1980s to provide a less vulnerable sea-based nuclear deterrent force for both the Britain and United States. Trident technology was complex and therefore very expensive.

The idea of building the submarines in the early 1980s was attractive to the management at VSEL because of the potential for profit. They assumed, as most people did at the time, that the Cold War would not end soon. British equity investors endorsed this view by rewarding VSEL with a high and growing stock price. As a result, the management of VSEL progressively divested itself of other businesses to focus most of its efforts on building Tridents.

A major argument in the book is that the closing of the Trident building program in 1998 brought considerable hardship to the workers of Barrow, but that this was not an inevitable outcome. A group of workers called the Barrow Alternative Employment Committee (BAEC) argued forcefully for the diversification of VSEL activities in order to avoid overdependence on defense contracts. Mort examines carefully in Chapter 3 the BAEC's claims that VSEL could have remained diversified by investing in non-defense technologies such as radomes and the Constant Speed Generator Drive (CGSD). The latter was basically a gearing system that allowed ocean-going vessels to generate their own electricity directly from the diesel engines that powered the propulsion system rather than using separate generating systems. Mort shows how this technology was jettisoned in a rather cavalier manner by a management not wanting to be distracted from its military mission by profitable commercial activities. The correctness of the BAEC's views and the stupidity of management decisions regarding CGSD in hindsight lead Mort to conclude that things did not have to work out the way they did.

However, there are other aspects of the argument that are worthy of comment. One of the problems that Mort addresses in Chapter 4 is how the majority of workers (other than the BAEC members and their allies) were convinced not just to go along with the divesting of civilian businesses but also actually to invest themselves in the shares of the newly privatized and defense-contract-dependent VSEL. The British government under Margaret Thatcher was keen to privatize state-owned enterprises like British Shipbuilders, so it proposed a management/worker buyout of the Barrows works as one of the ways to convince the unions that they had a stake in the success of the Trident program. The government hoped that having a financial stake in the firm would reduce the propensity of the workers to engage in strikes. Ironically, the workers invested in the shares and then immediately went on strike for better wages and working conditions. They had purchased the shares for their potential appreciation and sold them when the price went up. Although the workers remained stakeholders in VSEL, they did not remain shareholders for long. However, even though this tactic failed to prevent strikes and other union activity, it succeeded in scuttling efforts of groups like the BAEC to get the rest of the work force to question the overdependence on defense contracts in Barrow.

There is a brief but good theoretical discussion in Chapter 1 of the social construction school of thought in the science, technology and society (STS) branch of sociology. The influential writings of David Noble, Langdon Winner, and Bruno Latour are discussed briefly. Mort herself stresses the concept of "enrollment" by which she means the process of involving individuals in large technological projects. Her interest in not just in enrollment, but also in "disenrollment," as when workers are laid off when demand for a new technology declines or when they lose faith in or become marginal to a given project.

In sum, this book represents a solid effort to understand the path not taken in a large and important technological effort. Its generalizability to other large technology efforts may be limited to some degree by the exotic nature of nuclear submarine technology and the importance of the sudden and rather unexpected end of the Cold War for the events described in the book. Nevertheless, there are all too few books on technology that adequately consider the importance of the views of the workers who are part of the overall effort and particularly of the potential role of dissident labor groups like the BAEC.

Maggie Mort's actor network analysis of the history of Britain's participation in the Trident submarine program is an important book. It is a slim volume of only 217 pages and I hope its manageable scale will encourage its wide circulation. I suspect Ms. Mort will be surprised to learn that my first reaction to it is to wonder just how we have come so far from John Kenneth Galbraith's New Industrial State. Firms in Galbraith's analysis were oligopolistic, autonomous institutions vying for market share (and not profit maximization) which wrested power away from owners (entrepreneurs/shareholders). What has happened to his view, extremely plausible in1967, that the large corporation had evolved beyond the "fictional person" created in the act of incorporation to become a genuine "organism" for which the prime imperative was institutional survival? Unfortunately, the answer is perhaps captured in that most famous line of the philosopher of my generation, Pogo; "We have seen the enemy and he is us." The ownership of capital by pension funds, insurance companies, and public institutions such as universities and hospitals has submerged Galbraith's evolving organisms in a sea of share trading based on quarterly reports that nourishes the institutional needs for cash flows and endowment growth. This cannot be more clearly demonstrated than it is by Mort's analysis showing the concern for corporate health that coming from the labour force in and clashing with a management interest limited to shareholder value. The story of the construction of the Trident network is the story of the destruction of a complex corporate organism by a "successful" management that did, in fact, increase shareholder value and create an image of the inevitability of the path followed. .

Of course, enrollment into networks depends on translating many interests, so Ms. Mort's book also brings many other issues into focus. The book chronicles the progressive narrowing of a formerly diverse, creative, and complex marine engineering operation at Barrow into a single purpose tool of cold war nuclear confrontation capable only of building submarines to carry Trident missiles. Mort explores the logic of "core business" versus diversity, an issue that much recent industrial strategy makes crucial. Her story proceeds mainly through analysis of network construction by workers at Barrow who were attempting to preserve diversity and technical capacity in the face of the "baroque technology" of nuclear submarines. In this, she demonstrates clearly and forcefully how much labour history has to contribute to the analysis of large-scale sociotechnical systems. The story of the Barrow Alternative Employment Committee is fascinating and its intersection with the nuclear disarmament movement intriguing. A further important theme is analysis of technological roads not taken. The constant speed generator drive and the VSR3 radome are significant actors in this story.