Corporate-finance

For a reviewer of business books, Carol Frenier makes a very welcome change, for 'Business and the Feminine Principle' reads more like a good work of non-fiction than a 'business book' and this enhances rather than detracts from its relevance to people in business.

It is part auto-biography, part applied psychology, deeply reflective, discursive, and very concerned with values. I t manages to convey a lot of messages about the value of combining feminine and masculine ways of thinking and relating in the course of reflective discussion about situations that have influenced the author. Her style of presentation itself helps to illustrate the points she is making. Margaret Wheatley hits the mark exactly with her comment on the back cover blurb:

"This very personal and quietly passionate book asks us to explore aspects of human nature that have gone unregarded for too long. We could create so much more together if we would join Carol on this exploration."

And that is the point: to 'join Carol on this exploration' requires a willingness to engage in joint dialogue and joint reflection, which is too rare in the world of business and administration.

It is worth mentioning a couple of things that the book is not. It is not 'feminist' in any conventional sense, it does not seek to promote any one group over any other and it is not primarily about the place or even the roles of men and women in organisations. Frenier has been deeply influenced by Carl Jung and, if the book has a central theme, it is Jung's concept of individuation, the fullest possible development of the capacities that are present in all of us, through the way in which we enter into community with each other and value difference to aid growth. All women and all men have aspects of both the feminine and the masculine within them in varying degrees, and it is these qualities, not gender, that are the focus of Frenier's interest.

Throughout the book runs the sub-theme of the need to work for a truly sustainable world and the values involved in living simply. She is one of the rare authors who has the courage to challenge us to bring into explicit consciousness and think through the impact of the largely implicit assumptions on which business is based - 'more is better', 'growth is the name of the game' and others, which threaten our long term survival. She does this by example from her own experience and by inviting reflection, not by railing against 'the evils of today's society'. In doing so she displays a great faith in the capacity of small changes in attitude among a wide enough cross section of people to trigger major shifts for the better.

What comes through is the value, for results as well as the quality of all our lives, of engaging in open, reflective dialogue and entering into community around the issues that are important to us. The feminine within us has qualities which make it much more likely that this vital process will occur and be valued. It is an extremely important message in an environment in which the masculine is visibly cutting out all the time for reflection that - as the growing literature on knowledge management amply demonstrates - is vital not merely to our health and happiness, but to our commercial survival.

Encouraging the group we work with first to read the book and then to spend time discussing it would be an ideal way of opening up windows in our minds and expanding ways of relating.

I found this book exremely biased, especially on its treatment of ethics and environmentalism, which were extremely collectivistic and altruistic. I felt like I was also overcharged for the text book, for something so vaguely written.

Most textbooks do a very poor job of addressing current issues in a clear, accurate, concise manner. This book, however, is to be commended. I especially found the resource information and discussion cases to be a tremendous benefit. The discussion questions and current event topics encourage the students to explore these issues outside of class, in their businesses and in the community. Business and society is a topic of extreme importance. Unfortunately, it often goes overlooked in so many universities and colleges. Overall, I rank this book as a worthwhile investment and hope the authors continue to explore these important issues in business and education.

This is a required text at my school, but after having read the first 5 chapters there is almost nothing of value that I have read. I have spoken to several people that have used this text for the class in prior semesters and they told me that they had stopped reading it after the first several chapters also.

This review applies to the edition WITH CASES. This isn't recommended for anyone who is just starting out with choosing investments. Beginners might be better off with a more general overview of financial statement analysis (FSA) like Higgins' "Analysis of Financial Statements" or Fraser and Omriston's "Understanding Financial Statements".

This was one of two textbooks used in a financial statement analysis course I took for my MBA. Most chapters are down-to-earth and as a whole the book is well-written.

The other text we used was Penman's "Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation" which was also a great resource as far as gaining a basic understanding of the mechanics of financial statements and how to build a valuation model.

I contrast the two books because while Penman provides a run-down of several different models analysts can use (and does a good job of arguing for the Residual Income Model of valuation model as being the best), Palepu delves into the implications of companies' choices of accounting methods and provides more insight into what different kinds of businesses should look like in terms of their financial statements.

The cases at the end of each chapter add a lot of value to the text because they get students to focus on the specific issues detailed in each chapter. By picking apart different companies' financial statements we learned to use financial statements to assess the success or failure of companies' efforts to carry out their business strategies.

I rate it "Good - 4 stars"

This book is an excellent description of all the elements that would go into reviewing a potential investment opportunity. It is not a detailed book in one category, such as financial accounting, but it ties business strategy analysis, financial analysis, forecasting analysis, and valuation analysis together. Most other books focus on one area and don't tie all of these together well. This one takes you down the path to evaluating the opportunity to its fullest. It is an excellent capstone book after you have sifted through the details of strategy, finance, and accounting.

What is an alliance? How are they Competitive Weapons? All this and more are covered in detail. Major questions such as who to ally with and who not to are covered. For the smaller company, beware of the white knight that needs your technology, offers large cash infusions, but on the condition that all loans are due if a single payment is late. Why? Read the book and find out. Subjects covered include when to form an alliance, criteria for allies and how to find them, project planning suggestions, goals and objectives, exit clauses, and other basics. Charts and checklists abound to help gauge chances of success or help ferret out causes of failure. The book is rich in the personal experience of the author in building, and executing successful alliances. Whether reading fast for a general overview, or slow for detailed information the book is well written, with charts, graphs, checklists, and detail of alliances. The Business Alliances Guide should be required reading for anyone contemplating alliances in any form.