Managerial-finance

This book provides thought-provoking and practical advice about how to drive sustainable business impact from customer-facing initiatives. The advice is based on a careful blend of well know frameworks from leaders like Professor Michael Porter and years of experience from the authors and leading corporations. The descriptions of how to use CRM to increase competitive advantage and improve profitability are particularly intriguing, as they elevate CRM from a business initiatve to a business imperative.

The authors have included plenty of examples of real world successes and failures, and hence keep the book rooted in practical and actionable guidelines. I highly recommend this book for CRM novices and experts and for technical and business professionals, as there is important advice in here for everyone.

Don't let the title scare you, this is book is all about customer strategy--a "how to" book on effectively implementing customer relationship management. Relying on their experience, Bligh and Turk demonstrate how CRM SHOULD be executed--using a customer demand-driven approach. They include some amazing real-world examples from Fortune 500 companies including Dell, Wal-Mart and Pepsi to deliver this point--CRM initives implemented the right way are essential to the success of a business. Failures are covered too as learning opportunities. Chapter 2 has a case study about how Halloween 1999 was Hershey's scariest ever, a fantastic example. Each chapter ends with a "Key Points" summary to make reading easier and quickly review the material. If you think CRM is just software, pick up "CRM Unplugged", it should help change your perception.

The book is not comprehensive in going through the mechanics of actual credit analysis. It does not fully detail how a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement come together to give a picture of the customer.

The book also neglects the first crucial part of credit analysis, that is, spreading statements. It does not mention how financial statements, whether they be accountant's report, company prepared, tax returns, etc., need to be altered before any analysis takes place.

Also, the book does not show the parts of cash flow analysis that need further investigation, such as lease expense. Information such as that on tax returns, personal financial statements, personal credit reports, corporate financial statements, etc. come together to accurately state a customer's position is also not detailed.

The book has good case studies, but it lacks the fundamentals of credit analysis.

I have been working in the credit and collections field for approximately four years. I feel this book is an invaluable tool for both credit professionals and those starting out in the field. The chapters flow in a logical order. The language dispenses with most of the technical jargon, and if it is contained Mr. Dennis defines and outlines the terms. The best part about this books is that it was written recently, so it deals with a lot of the concerns credit managers have today. I also would endorse this book for classroom settings. It is certainly better than the antiquated credit textbooks I had to read in college. In conclusion, I recommend this book to anybody interested in credit, accounting, or general business practices.

I found this book to be one of the most comprehensive books on this subject I have read. I appreciated the way in which the information was presented - both in terms of the way it was organized, but also the way it made complex ideas easy to understand. Dorothy Siegel. Credit Manager. Fast Memory Inc.

An outstanding book that covers all areas of credit managemnet. This book is written for both the novice credit administrator and the seasoned credit executive. It can be used as both a text book and a reference guide. A must have for any business library.

Someone (perhaps it was I) has said that bankruptcy is corporate finance with negative signs. This has always been true but it is amazing how far mainstream finance has gone to try to resist the comparison. The resistance must be, must have been more cultural than economic, because it is axiomatic that anything is a bargain at the right price, and that there is no more or less money to be made in "distress investing" than in any other. Two generations ago, there seems to have been only one person in American that really understood this point - the late Max Heine, who made his grubstake by investing in out-of-favor railroad bonds in the Great Depression, and then riding the wave of prosperity that emerged in World War II. In the same vein, 40 years ago just about any bankruptcy judge would have looked on an "assigned claim" as some kind of monster.

Times have changed. Now everybody's an arbitrageur. The "vulture investors" have their conferences, their social clubs, and for all I know, their own softball team.

Stuart C. Gilson"s "Corporate Restructuring" symbolizes the sea change from the old attitude to the new. It adds the imprimatur of the Harvard Business School to the notion that vulture investing is just another way of making money. As others have noted, this isn't a work of high theory - indeed it has a kind of slapdash, direct-off-the-photocopier feel that is remarkably common in business publications. For fancy theory, you look elsewhere - in law to the likes of Douglas Baird or Lucian Arye Bebchuk; in finance to the developing lore of "real options." But the case studies are an excellent device for getting a sense of the texture and possibilities of vulture investing. It can be read with profit alongside Hilary Rosenberg's "The Vulture Investors." Ambitious students who want the full theoretical framework will match it with David G. Luenberger's "Investment Science." But Gilson's work has merit on its own as one kind of introduction to this revolution in investment thinking.

This is an extremely important book that nimbly moves where no one has gone before to explain the value creation through corporate restructuring and turnaround. It does so by complementing real world case studies with well-focused introductions of theoretical concepts, analytical tools, and legal/tax framework. As a restructuring consultant, I found that the book contains much useful practical information on the restructuring process that turnaround practitioners can find helpful in their practice. The case studies themselves include useful applied, institutional information about how various types of restructuring are done, what motivates restructuring, what different restructuring options are available for dealing with a particular problem or challenge, etc. I find that it goes far beyond the legal framework of bankruptcy resolution to show how conflicting stakeholders claims play to create or destroy value. The book undoubtely breaks new ground in explaining the restructuring strategies and processes. I recommended the book to many of my colleagues in reorganization and restructuring services as I believe it shoud become essential reading for students, creditors, debtors and consultants as they face the complex operational, legal and financial challenges of distressed situations. The price: I found it steep at first glance but then I changed my mind when I compared it to other professional books in the industry.

Without question, Professor Gilson's book is the SEMINAL WORK on creating value through corporate restructuring. It is essentially the Graham & Dodd "Security Analysis" of the corporate restructuring sector. A "must read" on corporate restructuring for investors, professionals, executives, managers, and students. The benchmark against which any other text in this area should be measured. Wealth of practical, yet sophisticated information about real world "how to's" of corporate restructuring. Harvard B-School case study format. The Harvard case studies are carefully designed to provoke discussion and challenge readers to consider the options for restructuring companies facing potentially "life-threatening" business challenges or crises. These companies have actually been through various restructurings (bankruptcy, spin-offs, tracking stocks, mergers, layoffs, etc.); insight comes from real companies and their real challenges. Definitely a useful textbook in any undergraduate or MBA level course addressing these topics (topics unfortunately mostly ignored by writers and universities until now.) Excellent work describing various restructuring processes. For example, Professor Gilson describes in detail Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization tactics such as tax issues to be addressed prior to spinning off a division, tracking stock alternatives, and business analysis associated with employee downsizing. Valuable essays on investing in debt of troubled companies and valuing companies during restructuring. Useful introductory chapters summarize case study lessons and list relevant research on related topics. Japonica Partners has been active in the restructuring area since the late '80s, and has created over $2 billion in value for our investors. We've found no other resource in this sector that comes close to this book. Many of our professional team members have already found value-added in its pages. Perhaps Professor Gilson will follow up with a second book (for instructors only) providing a transaction analysis on the evolution of each case.