Cost Management: Accounting and Control

Cost Management: Accounting and Control
Average customer rating:

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY; THAT'S A QUESTION!

Filled With Useless Information

FOR THE PRICE, THIS BOOK SHOULD BE BETTER

Want to Cheat Someone

Too much info.

Cost Management: Accounting and Control
Don R. Hansen , and Maryanne M. Mowen
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Study Guide for Hansen/Mowen's Cost Management: Accounting and Control, 5th

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Accounting Information Systems

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Study Guide for Hansen/Mowen's Cost Management: Accounting and Control, 5th

ASIN: 0324233108

Book Description

COST MANAGEMENT emphasizes that changing conditions often require a change in systems. Emphasizing this point stresses the dynamic and exciting nature of the field. By taking a systems approach -- one that first covers functional-based cost and control and then activity-based cost systems -- students understand how to understand and manage any cost management system.

Customer Reviews:

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY; THAT'S A QUESTION!.......2007-03-16

The text is pretty comprehensive and covers the subject of Cost Management broadly and deeply. Since there are not too many textbooks on the topic; therefore, authors are admired for their devoted efforts they put into. The publisher should understand the matter inside the book and manage the cost of this book and make it afforable to the students.

For students, it's tough beginning before learning "Cost Management", the book incurs too much cost and puzzles students how they should manage their own budgets. Anyway, it might be the strategy of the authors or the publishing company to begin the lessons from the sale. As one scholar said, "Experience is a tough teacher, which gives exams first and teaches lessons thereafter."

As far as the contents are concerned, the book is highly recommended, but at a lower price. Thank you for your time for reading this review.

Filled With Useless Information.......2006-09-01

If you want to wade through useless babble to get to the actual cost accounting, go at it. However, you'll probably buy this book anyway if you have an unscrupulous accounting professor who received a gift basket from the publisher.

In other words, it's useless to the student. However, I'm sure its very profitable for the publisher and the authors.

FOR THE PRICE, THIS BOOK SHOULD BE BETTER.......2006-03-23

This book should have been written better when you consider its expensive price tag. However, the review excercise at the end of the chapter is extremely helpful. I would recommend the book if serious improvements are made. Overall, it is not that bad.

Want to Cheat Someone.......2005-09-30

I made a mistake and chose the book they listed in the Amazon.com. When the book arrived, I saw that what they have listed was only a Study Guide from a really old edition. I must say that they have said this on the listing. That was my mistake. But I wrote them back that I do not want this book, and want to return it. But they do not accept the return and refund of money. They do know that it is hard to find someone again doing this mistake. I looked at the book. This is $ 10 worth, not more. And impossible to sell again. I am a student. I do not have so much money to afford the required book. So I got really frustrated and faced losts of problems in the following weeks and spent a lot of time and energy to get the right book. It is a really sad story and an experience for me. I hope the seller is right know enjoying my $ 139.71.

Too much info........2005-01-04

Too bad we're stuck with whatever book the professor assigns. Often reads like the authors needed to write 1,000 pages, regardless of the complexity of the material. I caught them several times referring to the same item with different terms. In-class instruction on methods will save you a ton of time.

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits

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Great Service
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing
TDABC - a very interesting book

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits
Robert S. Kaplan , and Steven R. Anderson
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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: Business Process Management and the Balanced Scorecard : Focusing Processes on Strategic Drivers
Cost & Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance

ASIN: 1422101711

Book Description

In the classroom, activity-based costing (ABC) looks like a great way to manage a company's limited resources. But executives who have tried to implement ABC in their organizations on any significant scale have often abandoned the attempt in the face of rising costs and employee irritation. Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing is the solution to the problems associated with large-scale ABC implementation. In this book, Kaplan and Anderson offer a revised model where managers can estimate the resource demands imposed by each transaction, product, or customer, rather than rely on time-consuming and costly employee surveys.

In their new model, Kaplan and Anderson focus on the two parameters managers need to estimate: how much it costs per time unit to supply resources to the business activities (the total overhead expenditure of a department divided by the total number of minutes of employee time available) and how much time it takes to carry out one unit of each kind of activity (as estimated or observed by the manager). Rather than endlessly updating and maintaining ABC data, this book with allow managers to spend their time addressing the deficiencies the model reveals: inefficient processes, unprofitable products and customers, and excess capacity.

Kaplan and Anderson lead the discussion of Time-Driven ABC in the first seven chapters, followed by individual cases studies of actual implementations by Acorn consultants in diverse settings.

Customer Reviews:

Great Service.......2007-05-29

Product purchase acknowldgement was near immediate, billing timely, receipt of product within three days and the exact product ordered received. Excellent.

Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing.......2007-05-13

I finished reading this book by Bob Kaplan - TIME-DRIVEN ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING last week.

Its a great book for folks familiar with the basic concepts and applications of Activity-based Costing/ABC. In a way Kaplan makes an apology to readers of his earlier books and ardent fans of ABC, for making their lives difficult with the practical implementation approaches for ABC, and offers to make up for it by proposing a change to the new approach called Time-driven Activity-based Costing or TDABC. Personally I would have preferred the term "Capacity-driven Activity-based Costing".

Ofcourse one cannot help but be sympathetic to Bob Kaplan. Having interacted with him in the past, I had an opportunity to see at close range the genius of this man and the range of his knowledge. The book is certainly a big leap in our knowledge-base and tools for managing for managing companies better.

Kaplan aso originated another methodology "THE BALANCED SCORECARD" (BSC), several books on the subject, and co-founded another firm to offer servies around it. He is however, no longer associated with the firm in any management capacity, and the firm is financially troubled.

I recommend Kaplan's BSC books wholeheartedly, but if you are looking to implement at your organizations, I would recommend inviting select independent consultants who have more experienced at this, than the one's available at this firm.

Professionals with a serious interest in TDABC could also do well to reach out directly to Bob Kaplan and his new firm (The Acorn Group), and his former students for consulting advise.

TDABC - a very interesting book.......2007-05-12

This book has given me a great insight in an easier way to allocate resources down to costumers and products using Time-driven cost driver rates.

However, I am a bit sceptical about the Capacity Cost rate, which seems to be the key element to this models success... especially the way the authors describes the way to calculate this rate.. But with some methodical procedure behing when implementing the model, it is possible to get good results.... that's my experience

All in all, it is a great book about the fundamentals when wanting to use TDABC in your business.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities (Academic Press Advanced Finance Series)

Average customer rating:

Clearly a Home Run!!!
A Refreshing New Approach to Learning
Great Book and Great CD
Highly Student Friendly
Superb!!!

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities (Academic Press Advanced Finance Series)
Donald DePamphilis
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
The Art of M&A: A Merger Acquisition Buyout Guide
The Art of M&A Due Diligence

ASIN: 0123694035
Release Date: 2005-07-29

Book Description

Dr. Donald DePamphilis explains the real-world of mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring based on his academic knowledge and personal experiences with over 30 such deals himself. The 77 case studies span every industry and countries and regions worldwide show how deals are done rather than just the theory behind them, including cross-border transactions. The interactive CD is unique in enabling the user to download and customize content. It includes an Excel-based LBO model and an M&A Structuring and Valuation Model in which readers can insert their own data and modify the model to structure and value their own deals. New additions to the third edition: 17 new cases, with all 77 cases updated, Glossary, real options applications, projecting growth rates. Student Study Guide on CD contains practice problems/solutions, powerpoint slides outlining main points of each chapter, and selected case study solutions. An extensive on-line instructors manual contains powerpoint slides for lectures following each chapter, detailed syllabi for using the book for both undergraduate and graduate-level courses, and an exhaustive test bank with over 750 questions and answers (including true/false, multiple choice, essay questions, and computational problems).

*Practical, real-world approach with 77 case studies from around the globe
*CD has customized content and the latest models and forecasting tools
*Student Study Guide on CD has practice problems/solutions, powerpoint slides, and selected case study solutions

Customer Reviews:

Clearly a Home Run!!!.......2006-03-18

This is one of those books that I wish I had written. As an experienced deal maker, I know what works and what doesn't. This book explains from a highly practical perspective the "art and science" of the deal. The author clearly has done his share of transactions in terms of his ability to capture the dynamic nature of the deal structuring and acquisition process. The author, as the chess master, goes through the development of alternative deal structures and strategies designed to consummate the deal. The process of offers and counter-offers is illustrated in a delightful and comprehensive case study at the end of the book.

The book is written with a fluid style that brings what for most are very difficult concepts to life in a readily understandable yet rigorous way. The author's nummerous insights are documented through references to recent academic and practitioner studies and illustrated by using recent case studies. I find the author's frequent use of brief studies of transactions to illustrate his current point very enlightening.

This book is far more than a reference or textbook; it is the reader's ticket to learning how to do deals and implement corporate restructuring activities. The book abounds with numerical and non-numerical examples to illustrate how to do things. The CD included with the text is easily worth the price of the book in that it provides numerous complex deal structuring and valuation M&A and LBO models. The CD also contains a wealth of other information including question lists for conducting due diligence and solutions to case study questions and problems contained in the text.

Yes, I wish I had written this book. But, then, those things are best left to those who can.

A Refreshing New Approach to Learning.......2006-01-01

Many business books take a pedantic, ponderous approach to what could easily be characterized as a challenging subject. However, I found the lively writing in this book to be very helpful to keeping my attention and to making difficult material more understandable. While the book is exhaustive, I found each chapter to be largely self contained. This text is clearly the most useful I have read on this subject. The CD included with the book contains models, presentations, chapter outlines, problem sets with answers, etc., all of which make this book the best available on the market.

Great Book and Great CD.......2005-12-22

This book is a one-stop shop for those interested in M&A. It covers all the relevant topics from how to develop a rigorous business plan appropriate to undertake an acquisition, to identifying and approaching target firms, to succesful negotiation, to planning and performing due dilgence, to planning and implementing successful integration, to financing the transaction. The book also addresses how to design effective takeover tactics and defenses. I was most impressed with the extent of the explanations about how to design and implement acquisition plans from a real world perspective. The author also addresses how to design effective takeover tactics and defenses. I also found the material on the M&A implications for governance very valuable.

The book is also very well documented. The extensive list of publications is very helpful for locating more articles and books on this exciting subject. I found the glossary of M&A terms among the most useful I've seen. It could be published as an M&A dictionary. The numerous case studies sprinkled throughtout the book are very helpful in demystifying the subject.

The CD included with the books contains a wealth of material often available on the internet for hundreds of dollars. The detailed M&A models and leveraged buyout models and due diligence question lists are available for customizing to meet your specific circumstances. I found the buyer due diligence question list in electronic form to be very valuable when it came time to making changes for my own needs The chapter outlines, study guides, and presentations also included on the CD are very helpful in internalizing the material. The CD also contains ansewrs to many case study questions and chapter questions.

All things considered, this book is a must have for anyone serious about learning the subject.

Highly Student Friendly.......2005-11-25

I am currently using this book in an M&A class and have found it to be an excellent business book. The book is exceptionally well organized, intuitive, and well-written. The book's use of bold type, self-explanatory headings facilitates the overall organization of the material, finding subject matter, and understanding key points the author is trying to make. The book is rich in examples, something that is often lacking in many books. The case studies for the most part of current, instructive, and insightful. The book is full of helpful insights and practical advice.

The CD -rom included with the book contains a lot of very useful stuff including powerpoint slides for each chapter, study guides for each chapter including chapter outlines and sample test questions and anwers, as well as anwers to many of the case study questions and problems in the book. The merger, acquisition, leveraged buyout and real option software illustrates how the pros analyze and value businesses. There are no secrets as you are able to access the underlying excel instructions to see how the models tick and to change them to suit your needs.

Overall, I would give this book an A+ for insightfulness, openess, practicality, readability,and organization.

Superb!!!.......2005-11-16

As you can see, I am very impressed with this book. It is by far the best book I have read on the subject in terms of thoughtfulness, organization, documentation, and practicality. It is full of well explained examples that make would could be a daunting subject understandable. The book comes with a CD that is full of M&A and LBO valuation software and excel spreadsheets, as well as a lot of other good stuff including powerpoint presentations highlighting lecture notes, student study guides, and answers to practice problems. All things considered, I would give this book a resounding thumbs up for those wanting to use in in their personal libraries, professions, or in the class room.

Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting

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Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting
James A. Brimson , and John Antos
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Activity-Based Cost Management Making It Work: A Manager's Guide to Implementing and Sustaining an Effective ABC System

ASIN: 0471086312

Book Description

A practical guide to the ABCs of ABB

This unique resource takes an in-depth look at creating value through activity-based budgeting (ABB). As most organizations are dissatisfied with some aspects of their performance, ABB has become an increasingly popular process for which many companies are abandoning traditional methods that no longer meet their demands. Emphasizing the importance of budgeting by activities and features rather than by cost elements, Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting offers a complete overview of feature costing, a technique used in conjunction with ABB, as well as the underlying principles of ABB, including linking strategy to activities, forecasting revenue, capacity management, and gap analysis. With numerous examples and case studies, it shows how to use state-of-the-art tools for achieving strategic goals, such as customer survey, core competency analysis, benchmarking, house of activities, reverse engineering to cascade strategy so everyone can act to create value for the organization.

In today's highly pressurized business environment, creating value is the number one priority for organizations. The key to achieving this is having a budget and accounting system that supports long-term goals. More and more organizations are now turning to activity-based budgeting (ABB), an innovative approach that can help organizations become more competitive by linking the budgeting process to organization strategy. Explaining the importance of budgeting by activities rather than by cost elements, this groundbreaking resource—the first book of its kind—is a practical how-to that covers the essentials of Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting.

Beginning with an overview of the fundamentals behind driving value, James Brimson and John Antos examine what exactly value is, how it is created, and why traditional planning and budgeting often lead to the destruction of value. Following a clear outline of the problems posed by the traditional budgeting process, the authors go on to explain that many companies have contemplated abandoning it altogether. In doing so, however, they must set performance targets and identify actions to achieve the targets: "Once those actions are implemented, there is a need to monitor the execution. Therefore, to drive value creation, organizations are implementing activity-based budgeting (ABB)." This comprehensive guide offers in-depth coverage of ABB and feature costing, a technique used in conjunction with ABB. ABB creates value by translating the business strategy into the activities necessary to implement that strategy. Feature costing creates value by understanding sources of product and customer variation and relating this variation to expected workload. Along with the benefits of using ABB and feature costing, Driving Value Using Activity-Based Budgeting addresses such essential topics as:

Translating strategy into a process and activity framework—performing activities and cross-functional processes that support strategy and assessing current performance against strategic goals
Forecasting revenue, volume, and workload—customer demographics and needs, the competition exploding a bill of activities, determining workload for special projects
Capacity management—capacity defined, managing capacity, capacity management methodology, handling excess capacity
Getting started—creating a business process budget, budget review panels, rank and select activities, cost budgeted activities

Book Description

Three things can happen when establishing a product price. A price set too high is a lost sale that could have been profitable at a lower price. A price set too low is rewarded with unprofitable work. Only when a price is set appropriately does a company make both a sale and a profit. Just as activity-based costing and activity-based management revolutionized the cost accounting world, activity-based pricing will bring a disciplined approach to developing pricing. Activity-based pricing examines the relationships between price, cost and sales volume and how this relationship effects profitability. Pricing for Profitability joins the disciplines of marketing, economics, business strategy, engineering and cost accounting to achieve maximum profitability.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book on Activity-Based Pricing.......2006-10-15

John Daly came up with a well written book that is interesting and informative on activity-based pricing. This book complements my knowledge and expertise on activity-based costing and I now know how to develop my prices based on a disciplined methodology for fixing the price.

John Daly avoids the mistake of focusing of maximizing revenue, advocated by some marketing professionals but rather puts the focus where it belongs namely maximizing profitability and ultimately shareholder value.

Any manager with responsibility for pricing will benefit immensely from reading this book.

Activity Based Costing Success Story.......2003-03-26

We have used the concepts outlined in John Daly's book to develop an activity based costing model. In fact, it has proven to be so useful that we are in its third revision. It is has been a critical tool for us to remain profitable during these difficult economic times. I do not know how we got along with out it!

A Must Read for Manufacturers.......2003-01-30

Pricing for Profitability has allowed our company to intelligently quote new projects and answer a critical question during price negotiations - "Should I walk?". We have also found the activity based pricing concepts useful for evaluating the countless cost down requests we get from our customer and understanding what we can and cannot do. I would recommend this book to anyone in a highly competitive, tight margin business.

Valuable insights into profitable pricing.......2003-01-16

John Daly has written an excellent book with important insights into the desirability and mechanics of using Activity Based Pricing to achieve a profit-driven pricing model.

Why is this important?

If you really understand and properly allocate your costs and use that understanding to develop an Activity Based Pricing model for your products and/or services then you are pretty well assured of profitability, particularly as you increase unit volume. Of course, this assumes you can sell at a price higher than your fully loaded, properly allocated costs.

As Mr. Daly clearly describes, traditional cost allocation methods (not to mention back of a napkin allocations) result in problematical cost distortions and lead to potentially serious pricing errors.

Anyone with profit and loss responsibility, or who would like to get there, would be well served to buy this book, read it and take it to heart. It is well written, coherent and was a pleasure to read. Daly has struck an excellent balance in that the book is not so filled with technical accounting/finance detail it is inaccessible to a non-accountant and yet it has sufficient substance to be of interest to accounting and finance specialists.

As investment bankers we receive financing requests from many companies seeking capital that are not profitable or not as profitable as they could be. Activity Based Pricing is one of the disciplines we are introducing to our clients and prospective clients to help them achieve profitability or become more profitable in order to better position them to compete for capital.

Excellent!.......2002-10-25

Mr Daly's writing style is smooth and casual, and the book is loaded with common sense. His discussion of overhead allocation problems certainly makes the point that GAAP accounting practices lead to serious errors in cost accounting.

Book Description

* A practical, cost-effective guide to ABC for small to medium companies.
* Identifies the key cost related issues in organizations and shows how to develop a cost-flow structure that reflects the organization's cost behavior.
* Feature an ongoing case study throughout the book documents the model-building process.
* Provides a spreadsheet model blueprint that details data flows.
* Shows how a cost model of an organization can be developed using basic spreadsheet software on a PC.

Customer Reviews:

Very detailed.......2002-10-25

Hicks has a lot to offer in this book on activity-based costing, however it is not an easy to read. It very quickly dives into the weeds of detail. I think this is a very good second book to read on Activity Based Costing, because it goes into the details of how to actually implement a system. I would recommend that you first read Kaplan's "Cost and Effect," to get a good grounding in the fundamentals before reading this book.

Must Buy for ABC.......2001-11-14

This is a fantastic book on the subject of ABC. The costing model constructed in the book goes into just enough detail to give you a practical foundation for actual implementation, without getting lost in minutiae. At just the right times, the author also reminds you about the big picture and doesn't let you go away thinking correct decisions can all be boiled down to exercises in number-crunching. This is a must-buy, if you're serious about implementing ABC in your organization.

It really makes it work.......2000-04-20

Activity-Based Costing: Making it Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies, is a very well written and usefull handbook to design and implementation of Activity-Based Costing. It provides: a general description of key concepts of ABC, a practical guide to design of ABC system in the company, as well as description of any potential problems concerning implementation of ABC. I am working as a financial consultant (in Warsaw), and this book has helped me to help many companies that were loosing their cost-effectiveness. I think, that the author should have added some 100 pages to the book, and defined - described some aspects of Activity-Based Management - although that could have been too technical for most of the readers. Overall, I think that the book contains most of the knowledge needed for successful design & implementation of ABC. It really worked for me...

Doug Hicks - ABC Guru.......2000-03-05

This is a model of clear and effective writing and teaching. Certainly one of the best accounting books I've ever read, it gives you the tools to start ABC analysis at once and never strays into jargon. The many examples of different company types and the simple to use and understand spreadsheet analysis keeps you focused on the theory of ABC rather than minute details of allocations. A book to keep on your desk.

Literally breaks ground!.......2000-02-26

I can not quite imagine a single decision made in any company that does not concern cost. And, when it is about accurate costing, I can not imagine another book on business that can better assist than this one.

First, the author defines the concept, states the reasons why Activity Based Costing should be implemented in every company, and then thoroughly shows you how to do it. Since the main step-by-step example in the book concentrates on a small manufacturing organization, those who are applying the concept to service organizations may have a harder time making the translation to their specific situations. Still, I don't think that will be much of an issue. The book is very well-written and must be digested by every professional with a passion for improving their company and seize a competitive advantage.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities, Second Edition
Average customer rating:

Comprehensive and Useful M&A Text

Includes great M&A modeling software

Outstanding treatment of technical/non-tech.aspects of M&A

Thoughtful, Stimulating, and Enjoyable

Great M&A, Valuation, and Modeling Book

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Other Restructuring Activities, Second Edition
Donald DePamphilis
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0122095529

Book Description

This second edition is written readers who crave real world learning. Professor DePamphilis has filled this book with updated cases and grounded models which reflect the theoretical underpinnings of the field. Expanded usage of "key idea" section headings enable the student to understand more easily the key point in each section of each chapter. Chapter 5 provides a detailed listing of questions commonly used to evaluate target firms doing due diligence. A primer on using financial ratios in Chapter 8 has been extended to include a convenient summary of commonly used financial ratios and suggestions as to how they may be used to evaluate target firms. The accompanying CD includes a set of Excel spreadsheets that supplements Chapter 8.

An Instructor's manual, available on the web, contains suggested learning objectives, chapter presentations for creating lectures or providing students with study guides, more than 750 test questions and answers (including true/false, multiple choice, essay questions, and practice problems), and solutions to all chapter business case studies in the book. The manual also contains detailed course syllabi that have been used extensively for both undergraduate and graduate classes and suggested ways for teaching the materials.

Includes 18 new case studies; all 70 cases have been updated

Instructor's Manual available on the web; includes practice problems and solutions

Accompanying CD includes a set of Excel spreadsheets that will supplement Chapter 8

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive and Useful M&A Text.......2005-08-04

This is an excellent book. The author thoroughly describes the process and analysis of mergers and acquisitions. He also outlines LBO's, shared growth, and alternative exit and restructuring strategies.

Includes great M&A modeling software.......2003-06-14

This book takes the mystery out of M&A financial modeling and structuring deals. Many books on the subject seem to take a "black box" approach to how to do deal structuring and valuation. The author discusses in plain language how to do valuation, simulation, and deal structuring using financial models and how to use such models to select the best offer price for a target firm. The book includes detailed discussions of tax, accounting, and alternative deal structures.

The CD accompanying the book contains an Excel spread sheet model that can be modified to fit the unique circumstances of any transaction. This alone justifies buying the book, in my opinion.

The book also provides keen insights into how M&A can be used to implement business plans, how to identify potential target firms, strategies for contacting potential targets, and how to draw up initial documents such as confidentiality agreements and letters of intent. The book is highly comprehensive covering virtually all topics necessary to understanding the M&A process.

For the money, it is the best book on the subject, up-to-date, complete, and highly readable. If you have a serious interest in the subject, this is an important book to add to your library.

Outstanding treatment of technical/non-tech.aspects of M&A.......2003-04-07

Unlike many other treatments of this subject, this text discusses M&A in the context of a process or framework. The author takes great pains to show how all M&A related activities interact. The text discusses both technical (e.g., valuation, accounting, and tax issues) and non-technical (e.g., strategy development, identifying potential targets, initial contact, negotiation, and integration) issues. The book does an excellent job of talking about alternatives to M&A for executing strategies, including alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, etc.

Numerous recent case studies illustrate various concepts and situations. The coverage of laws affecting different types of business combinations, of accounting standards applicable to M&A, and of relevant tax considerations is both current and excellent. The book also contains useful checklists to facilitate implementing transactions. The book is also chock full of helpful insights and hints of what to look for and how to avoid the traps that often accompany different types of transactions.

The book also contains an excellent discussion of other ways to enhance shareholder value. These include spin-offs, divestitures, carve-outs, bust-ups, and bankruptcy.

The book is highly practical and well-documented and could be viewed as a handbook on how to use M&A (or alternatives to M&A) to execute business stratgies. I think the book is an indispensable reference for accountants, lawyers, investment bankers, CFOs, and others involved in making transactions happen.

Thoughtful, Stimulating, and Enjoyable.......2003-03-22

This book is very well written...packed full of helpful information on M&A. The author's use of short cases to illustrate key points was most helpful. I found the down to earth discussion of how to put deals together very clear. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the scope of the book included an extensive discussion of alternative strategies such as JVs to mergers and acquisitions. The author also managed to include an exceedingly large number of case studies in the book, many of which were international transactions. Good book, good read. I highly recommend it.

Great M&A, Valuation, and Modeling Book.......2003-03-16

While this book covers all aspects of how to do a deal, the chapters on valuation, deal structuring, and financial modeling are by far the most lucid I have seen. The Excell spread sheet model on the CDROM accompanying the book provides incredibly helpful insight into how purchase price strategies are developed. The reader can review all of the underlying formulas enabling them to modify the model or to develop their own. Moreover, the model provides the reader with unusal insight in how all valuation, tax, accounting, and synergy considerations converge and interact to affect price. Overall, the book is very well written, clear, and supported.

Activity-based Cost Management: An Executive's Guide

Average customer rating:

Using ABC to manage your business
A great place to start
Great starting point and continuing reference
Outstanding Executive's Guide to Understanding ABC/M
Activity-Based Cost Management

Activity-based Cost Management: An Executive's Guide
Gary Cokins
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Activity-Based Cost Management Making It Work: A Manager's Guide to Implementing and Sustaining an Effective ABC System
Cost & Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance
Activity-Based Costing: Making It Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies (Wiley Cost Management Series)
Implementing Activity-Based Management in Daily Operations (Nam/Wiley Series in Manufacturing)
The Ernst & Young Guide to Total Cost Management

ASIN: 047144328X

Book Description

Proven strategy for reducing production and operating costs while increasing profits

As the growth of the Internet shifts power to consumers, the pressure on companies to keep prices low will continue to mount. Increasingly corporations are relying on "margin management" and supply chain management as a means of keeping prices low while raising profits. Activity-based costing and management (ABC/M) data is key to succeeding in both these critical management strategies. This book explains how executives can effectively use the information furnished by cutting-edge ABC/M systems. The author, an acknowledged expert in the field, clearly defines the ABC/M system and explains how to use the information it provides for best results. He provides a rational framework for understanding the fifteen key defining characteristics of ABC/M and arms readers with an ABC/M Readiness Assessment test along with extremely user-friendly exhibits.

Gary Cokins (Far Bingham Farms, MI) is Director of Industry Relations at ABC Technologies, the world's leading supplier of activity-based information software. He is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author.

Customer Reviews:

Using ABC to manage your business.......2007-01-24

The author did a good job of coming up with a user friendly book on Activity-Based Costing (ABC). ABC is critical in alerting managers of the major and subsidiary drivers of costs. Many companies, large and small, have benefited from employing ABC techniques.

The author methodically and succinctly discusses and explains activity based-costing, a management planning tool aimed at discovering what your true costs are by essentially assigning overhead costs to products and customers. The idea is that the more you know about your costs, the better able to compete.

The author rarely speaks down to his audience. In fact, Gary Cokins is able to continually build on what is presented previously in the book without endless looping. This makes the book readable by both the expert and novice in accounting. The novice will benefit from the detailed introduction into the concept of ABC. The author then methodically explains how costs can be allocated to products and services.

This is a recommended book that helps the reader to learn and comprehend the important technique of ABC that should enable companies to eliminate hidden costs and be more efficient and competitive.

A great place to start.......2006-04-11

First, the author Gary Cokins has practical experience in ABC/M that spans a significant amount of the evolution of this practice. His book, Activity-Based Cost Management strikes a solid balance between theory and application helping the reader make progress and understand why. The author also connects the topic to many important contemporary issues including the internet, software, lean and six sigma. This is a great starting point for anyone.

Great starting point and continuing reference.......2002-12-21

This book is an excellent resource for learning and understanding ABC accounting. Unlike many web articles and white papers, Gary's book is a practical not academic approach from someone who has been there, done that, and has the t-shirt. It's filled with lots of explanatory diagrams which help to visualize the concepts presented and are useful when presenting on a high-level to executives under time constraints for reading. Chapter 1 clearly presents ABC basic concepts while Chapter 2 is a direct follow-on expanding the depth and breath of those basic concepts. Chapter 3 addresses the question that all senior management wants to know: Are all your trading partners worth it to you? Subsequent chapters focus on typical ABC modeling applications most relevant to organizations. Chapter 6 gives a very good cross-comparison of project/work order costing vs. ABC that is very helpful to project-centric organizations in understanding how ABC differentiates itself. Chapter 7 succinctly places ABC software in the reengineering software spectrum without getting lost in a technological morass. Chapter 9 addresses rapid prototyping for getting initial results from the methodology that can be tweaked iteratively to grow a more sophisticated ABC model. In conclusion, I highly recommend this book and look forward to Gary's "ABC Management - Making it Work" which is next on my ABC must-read list.

Outstanding Executive's Guide to Understanding ABC/M.......2002-11-13

Gary does a wonderful job in explaining not only what is ABC/M but also why it is needed is today's competitive environment. I enjoyed the discussions on defining and measuring capacity as well as the cost of quality. If you're looking for a book that describes ABC/M and it's uses, this is it!

Activity-Based Cost Management.......2002-09-05

it is an amazing book on the subject. it provides valuable practical insights to issues faced by any practitioner of ABC/M.
Anyone who is closely related or has been involved with the implementation of ABC or wants a good understanding of ABC should definitely read this book.

Cost & Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance

Average customer rating:

What's good in it?
BEST ANALYSIS OF ACTIVITY BASED COSTING AND HOW TO GUIDE
The very best book on activity-based management.
Cooper and Kaplan: my heroes
Evolving Toward Better Financial Information and Actions!

Cost & Effect: Using Integrated Cost Systems to Drive Profitability and Performance
Robert S. Kaplan , and Robin Cooper
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Activity-based Cost Management: An Executive's Guide
Activity-Based Costing: Making It Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies (Wiley Cost Management Series)
The Ernst & Young Guide to Total Cost Management
Activity-Based Cost Management Making It Work: A Manager's Guide to Implementing and Sustaining an Effective ABC System
Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing: A Simpler and More Powerful Path to Higher Profits

ASIN: 0875847889

Book Description

Two of the most innovative thinkers in the field present a work that represents the single best resource for understanding and implementing activity-based cost management. Kaplan and Cooper reveal that most companies don't know how to measure accurately, influence, or understand the fundamental cost drivers in their businesses. They then provide a detailed and comprehensive blueprint that will enable managers to make better decisions and to promote organizational learning and improvement.

Cost and Effect takes the management, finance, and accounting fields to an entirely new level, as the authors demonstrate how the principles of activity-based costing and other advanced cost management techniques, such as target and kaizen costing, can drive business performance. Using lively examples from a variety of leading companies worldwide--including Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, the Swedish wire manufacturer Kanthal, Kirin Beer, and Procter & Gamble--they show how to create integrated, knowledge-based systems that provide meaningful information on current and past performance.

The innovation systems described in Cost and Effect will help you:
* Determine where improvements in quality, efficiency, and productivity will have the highest payoffs.
* Assist front-line employees in their learning and improvement activities.
* Make better product mix and capital investment decisions.
* Negotiate more effectively on price, product features, quality, delivery, and service to promote win-win relationships with your customers.
* Choose low-cost suppliers who are truly low cost, not just low price.
* Design products and services that meet customers' expectations-and that can be produced and delivered at a profit.
* Integrate your activity-based cost system into reporting and budgeting processes to reveal the sources of excess capacity.

Everyone involved in running a business-from general managers and strategic planners to financial executives, IT professionals, and operations managers-must read this book to learn how innovative cost and performance measurement systems can enhance their organizational profitability and performance.

Customer Reviews:

What's good in it?.......2004-10-25

First of all, this book doesn't give the pleasure of good reading. C'mon, what kind of pleasure do you expect from a 500 pages book with very small fonts?

I would like to review on pages 183-189 regarding case at Kanthal. It said that according to ABC calculation, Kanthal has found that customer #199 records loss, unfortunately customer #199 is in the top three in terms of sales volume. If ABC is really a good tool, then Kanthal should fire customer #199. But Kanthal didn't do that. They don't believe in ABC?

Customer #199 implemented JIT and they've got substantial improvement in productivity and efficiency. With JIT concept they place order to Kanthal in small quantity and frequent orders. According to ABC, this makes the cost for Order-to-cash activities at Kanthal is quite high, so that it eats the margin.

The funny thing, the book said JIT is appropriate in Japan, not in Sweden. Don't they look at automotive industry around the world that successfully implement JIT?

So what's the solution described in the book? The solution is to cut the cost of order-to-cash activities by using electronic B2B concept. And it claims that customer #199 turns to be profitable for Kanthal after that. So simple and...so wrong!

Maybe ABC calculation shows that result is good at Customer #199 level. But still, the company bottom line remains the same. Do they cut sales persons' salary? No. Do they fire a sales person who handle customer #199? No. Do they reduce transportation cost? No.

Probably by using B2B, there's small fraction of cost saving on order processing activities, but it won't be significant enough to increase the net profit for the company.

If B2B does reduce the cost of order processing cost significantly, why they don't use it for all customers?

BEST ANALYSIS OF ACTIVITY BASED COSTING AND HOW TO GUIDE.......2003-11-23

Kaplan and Cooper have put together an outstanding guidebook for managers to follow in order to reap the most significant benefits from activity based costing and other cost management techniques. The great merit of this book is that it does not preach to the reader the latest management fad, but rather goes through a thorough analysis of budgeting processes, highlighting benefits and drawbacks of each. They do not claim ABC is the best approach, and even praise some simpler methods that are more adequate for certain companies. Instead, they point to the circumstances in which ABC can provide outstanding results to companies.

The book structured first with an analysis of the most often used systems of managerial cost accounting. It highlights the shortcomings of these, proceeding then to present certain productivity improvements that could contribute to performance. These are mostly related to the quality movements (TQM, 6 Sigma, etc), which are presented in a very understandable way. These are complements to the existing usual cost management systems. These improvements can be made even without implementing ABC systems.

Then the authors proceed to describe activity based costing and its benefits in terms of choosing customers, suppliers, and product breadth. They present many examples that would be very relevant to any practitioner, in industry or service. There is a specific section focusing on services, which makes the appropriate adaptations to the systems for the peculiarities of it.

Overall, an outstanding work, to help anyone involved in cost management, whether they are interested in activity based costing or more traditional standard costing methods.

The very best book on activity-based management........2002-10-25

I have read this book cover to cover and have re-read chapters. Kaplan ensures that you grasp the fundamental concepts by keeping things simple. He illustrates the concepts with easy to understand examples. I gained very little knowledge from the first 3 ABM books I read, but after reading "Cost and Effect," I felt that I had a good enough grasp of the fundamentals to actually implement a costing system.

Cooper and Kaplan: my heroes.......2001-12-27

After reading several academic papers concerning activity based costing I still wasn't convinced about the usefullness of the methodology. After reading Cost & Effect I revised my opinion on Cost Management. This book gives all the answers to effective Cost Management. It takes you from the ABC Age to the Activity Based Management Age and clearly helps you to understand what costs are alle about. Once you really understand the topics of this book you will be able to face and manage costs in whatever business you are in. Read it!

Evolving Toward Better Financial Information and Actions!.......2001-10-05

Cost & Effect will most appeal to those who have had extended experience with Activity-Based Costing (ABC) or operate in manufacturing industries.

If you are interested in learning more about Activity-Based Costing, this book is not the best choice for you. Professor Kaplan has co-authored books that explore this subject in much greater detail.

Most people set as their initial priority the need to have accurate financial reporting for the entire enterprise. Falling below that level of effectiveness is Stage I in the terms of this book. Once you have that financial reporting done accurately, you are at Stage II. But you know almost nothing about how to manage your costs better. In order to do that, you will need to establish ad hoc financial reporting processes designed to help your organization learn from its experience and identify opportunities for improvement, built around Activity-Based Costing (ABC). ABC is simply a way of more accurately applying overhead costs back to activities and then processes that permits accurately understanding more about which combinations of products and services and customers are profitable and which are not. Then, within each activity, you can also see the inefficiencies in what you are doing that present opportunities for improvement. The book also has a nice discussion of Kaizen costing that is widely used in Japanese companies looking for on-going cost improvements, based on Professor Cooper's research. There are a few case histories to illustrate the principles, but most will find these insufficient to guide them through the process. In other books, Professor Kaplan has pointed out that there is a lot of acquired art in the subject and you probably need help to get it right. I concur. Once you have ABC operating in stand-alone systems, you are at Stage III.

At this point, you will have a financial reporting system that is separate from the ABC system. How do you put them together? That the subject of chapter 14, which is the key value-added part of this book. You will see what the systems architecture and process flow needs to be in order to combine ABC with Enterprise-Wide Systems (EWS) of the sort that many large companies have invested in during recent years. Putting the two together will greatly improve planning, budgeting, design of new products and services, and operational improvements. Chapter 15 expands into the area of how to apply the combined system to budgeting and transfer pricing. Combing ABC and EWS puts you at Stage IV, a level rarely reached today.

The book's main message is that it's a mistake to try to go from Stage II directly to Stage IV. There's a lot of experimentation and mistakes that you can benefit from in an extended Stage III. I agree again, based on my experience with ABC.

The one caution you should have about ABC in this context is that if you are going to radically change your business model every 2-5 years as many companies are, Stage IV is probably unattainable and undesirable. You can't hold back business model innovation for better cost systems. The next business model innovation will probably give you better costs than tweaking the current business model with ABC will.

Seek out the fastest route to progress, and do more of it!

Book Description

The Price Waterhouse Guide to Activity-Based Costing for Financial Institutions show how firms can use the breakthrough concept of activity-based costing (ABC) in the same way that other companies have--to increase profits by managing all activities from the top down, more efficiently. This book explains the methods and technologies of this profit-enhancing technique, with detailed guidelines that help firms plan for costs before they occur, rather than simply monitoring them. Readers will find: An explanation of why costs are incurred; Practical Steps for putting ABC to work in a financial instituion; Dozens of practical cases that illustrate the situations in which the concepts can be applied.

Customer Reviews:

Its a great book to use it as reference.......1999-12-21

This book it's an excellent reference when you're implementing an ABC/M project in a Bank. It has a complete list of cost drivers that are also used as performance metrics.

It's an excellent example of how can ABC/M be used also with services not just in manufacturing

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