Book Description
Combining best reporting practices with the latest information technology
Finance professionals need to constantly search for more efficient ways to increase the scope and effectiveness of the reporting process, while at the same time minimizing operational costs. Performance Management and Reporting Best Practices weds best practices to the ultimate measures-better business decisions and better results-defining clear action plans for successfully developing, implementing, and profiting from the strategic application of key performance metrics. David Axson's reader-friendly guide combines reporting best practices with the most recent developments in information technology, allowing managers to automate and streamline the reporting process to meet their unique needs. Drawing upon real-world examples, he explains how leading-edge companies are redesigning the financial planning process, making it more responsive, adaptive, useful, simple, powerful, and able to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage.
David Axson (Akron, OH) is Managing Director of AnswerThink Consulting Group's CEO/Solutions practice area.
Customer Reviews:
Best Practices to create value.......2007-07-23
Author David Axson provides practical best practices for the company interested in solving one its most crucial bottlenecks in creating value. It provides a clear roadmap for the "integration" of strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting. In most companies today these are fragmented or disparate processes that lack synchronization.
This book is an excellent reference guide with clear, concise examples. A real interesting read.
At last a reasonable definition for best practice.......2007-06-29
What Axson does is define what a best practice is. How it does not apply only to one company or industry. How anyone can adapt an existing one or, in fact, invent a new one for the benefit of other companies and industries.
Plenty of examples what companies do right and wrong and how to find the "low-hanging fruit" of common mistakes and right those mistakes using best practices.
How to shorten cycle time and implement decisions.......2006-11-15
According to David Axson, traditional planning and management reporting processes "are simply too slow, too detailed, and too disconnected for today's competitive world. Managers are seeking new decision-making processes and tools that enable them to shorten the cycle time to make and implement a decision." This book offers processes and tools to meet that need, what Axson characterizes as "the current "state of the art" practices, based on the benchmarks and client experiences of The Hackett Group of which Axson was a co-founder. As with so many other business books, this one responds to an important question, in fact to two:
What is the best level of performance to be achieved?
How is it to be accomplished?
Axson organizes his material with three Parts. First he explains why best practices can be "a vehicle for performance improvement," then describes the best practices for "each element of the planning and management reporting process - strategic planning, operational and financial planning, management reporting, and forecasting." Finally, in Part III, he provides insights into "the steps required to design a benchmark, build a best practices process, understand the critical success factors for implementation, and the importance of effective leadership. As I read Axson's book, I felt as if I were examining the contents of a "tool kit," with the book serving as an instructions manual.
Over recent years when retained by corporate clients to help them reduce cycle time while improving first-pass yield, I was frequently aware of the fact that the cycle time and first-pass yield of those initiatives were themselves "too slow, too detailed, and too disconnected for today's competitive world." I mention this because the same may be true of initiatives to identify and then implement best practices. Quite properly, Axson does not suggest which best practices to select but he offers invaluable advice as to how to ensure that their implementation is both effective and (key word) efficient.
He asserts that best practices must effect a measurable improvement of performance, be applicable across a broad spectrum of comparable organizations, be proven in practice, take full advantage of proven technologies, ensure an acceptable level of control and risk management, and get the skills and capabilities of the given organization in proper alignment. It is important to note that (a) his observations and recommendations are anchored in an abundance of real-world experiences and (b) are best viewed within a continuous and integrated process rather than as separate, autonomous initiatives.
On pages 19-20, Axson identifies the basic steps of best practice marketing: identify an opportunity for improvement, determine whether or not it justifies taking action, investigate the reasons for a "shortfall" in performance, identify the best practices which can be applied, and then focus on implementing the change(s) to achieve substantial improvement of the given organization's operations. To me, some of the most valuable material in this book is provided in Chapter 6, "Operational and Financial Planning: Translating Ideas into Action." He guides his reader through the step-by-step process.
In this context, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker once said in an article written for the Harvard Business Review in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Hence the importance of determining, first, which "shortfall" in performance is in greatest need of reduction, if not elimination. However, when making that determination, beware of responding to symptoms rather than to root causes. It is often helpful to use the "fishboning" technique: When discussing with associates a specific question or problem, ask "Why?" and in response to the answer, ask "Why?" again and continue to do so in this manner to each of least five subsequent responses to it. This admittedly an irritating but frequently productive process.
Decision-makers in any organization (regardless of its size or nature) will benefit substantially from the information, insights, and suggestions which Axson provides in this volume. To repeat, he does not suggest which benchmarks to select but does correctly emphasize that benchmarks must meet four primary requirements. They must be objective, quantifiable, credible, and actionable. Implicit, presumably, is another requirement: that a benchmark is relevant. One final point: What is a best practice today can soon become the norm and then the "shortfall" in need of attention. In that event, Axson's book will have provided an excellent preparation to respond to it effectively.
illuminating insights.......2003-08-05
An entertaining, insightful book - I found it useful in describing how benchmarking can be used to good effect in practise - in real situations - from someone who has definitely been there and done it. Our organization can certainly use the advice here - big time - and save ourselves a bunch of consultancy fees into the bargain!
Practical & easy to read.......2003-07-30
Axson's book offers a practical and easy to read review of best practices in one of the most maligned areas of management. Combining useful benchmark data and implementation guidance this book provides a useful companion for anyone attempting to navigate through a tough change process
Book Description
Behind every business hero lies a successful strategy. Behind every business failure lurks a bad strategy.
Developing a good strategy is remarkably simple. Yet the subject has become obscured and over-complicated by academics and consultants with their own hobby-horses and proprietary methods. Strategy has become remote from those who need it most: owners and executives.
The Financial Times Guide to Strategy offers more insight than a whole library of academic strategy tomes. It will help you construct a strategic framework for your company, business model, and marketplace. This second edition is fully updated, encompassing changes in the theory and practice of strategy and including commentary on the latest theories and theorists. Coverage includes:
*demonstrating the power of strategy to raise profits
*providing a DIY strategy kit for managers
*distilling strategic thinking since 1960
*providing a lively A-Z of strategy concepts, terms, and techniques
"Strategy has never been so simple, accessible, powerful, and practically directed to raise profits." -Robin Field, Chief Executive, Filofax Group
Customer Reviews:
The Business Strategy Foundation Book.......2001-04-24
After reading Koch's "80/20 Principle", I was convinced that he's a mind of his own. His non-conform thinking and writing is extraordinary. Had I only read this book on Strategy before entering my MBA, business school life would have been much easier. Koch's book on strategy is a foundation book, covering the crucial basics for "understanding" business strategy (roughly 80%). It helps espcially the student of strategy not to get (too) confused by providing basic understanding what business stratetgy is all about. The chapters:
INTRODUCTION Koch states wonderfully the use and abuse of strategy and the swings in strategic thinking.
BUSINESS UNIT STRATEGY A do-it-yourself guide with excellent examples.
CORPORATE STRATEGY Very critical Mr Koch argues about the value creation of corporate strategy.
STRATEGIC THINKERS A guide to some of the most useful and important 40 strategic thinkers and their ideas.
STRATEGIC CONCEPTS, TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES An A-Z glossary. The key words (or rather Consulting & MBA buzzwords)used in the world of strategy.
STRATEGIC SHIFTS IN THE 21 CENTURY Forward lookin Koch claims that the tools of strategy are particular valuable for understanding and exploiting shifts of increasing returns, networks, and the net in our new century.
Excellent primer into theory on strategic management.......2001-01-17
Are you a MBA student? Management scholar? If yes, then this book is definitely for you. The book is not meant for everyday management decision makers because it lacks practical insight. But the theory side is excellent. The author of renown "80/20 principles" has written a good outline of strategic management theories through decades as well as about the latest developments in this area. In the introductory part he gives an overview about overall theoretical background of the subject starting from the teachings of Igor Ansoff. In the first part of the analysis goes mainly around book business unit strategy drawing parallels to BCS-s and Porter's positioning methodology. In the second part the attention is given to various possibilities of corporate strategy. The third part gives an alphabetic overview of all the main strategic thinkers. The fourth part speaks about main concepts, methodologies and techniques used in strategic planning process. The final fifth chapter tries to predict the future of the strategic planning by analysing the latest developments in this area.
Average customer rating:
- Linking strategy with the numbers
- Missing the point
- Excellent Job!
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Business Portfolio Management: Valuation, Risk Assessment, and EVA Strategies
Michael S. Allen
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 047137640X |
Book Description
The Ultimate Guide to Applied Strategies for Managing Business Units and Portfolios Two of the most important business trends of recent years are increasing corporate acquisitions and managing business units as individual companies with a synergistic relationship to the parent company. Business Portfolio Management is an indispensable tool for corporate managers and strategists involved in these pursuits. This no-nonsense reference cuts through the competing claims and conventional wisdom to take a hard look at the realities of portfolio management. It provides the concepts and strategies necessary to create real strategic alternatives, estimate accurately the value of each alternative, and understand the risks involved in each. It supplies a framework for choosing between alternatives, for making tradeoffs between risks and opportunities, and for understanding how individual units in a portfolio will interact. From beginning to end, the concepts, techniques, and situations discussed in Business Portfolio Management are illustrated with detailed examples drawn from actual consulting engagements conducted by the author and his colleagues. These examples not only provide specific descriptions of how portfolio management concepts are implemented in the real world, they also give a real-world picture of the magnitude of value increases that are created through effective portfolio management.
Customer Reviews:
Linking strategy with the numbers.......2000-09-04
It's a book about strategy. The author shows how to establish a value-creating business portfolio stategy, stressing the importance of developing different strategic alternatives, including possible aquisitions, and assesing the risk involved. The book is an excellent choice for those facing the definition of an optimal non-financial portfolio.
Missing the point.......2000-05-24
The book was written probably some 15 years ago, when Real Options barely existed and the only tools available to consultants were efficient frontier and NPV. The treatment of risk vs. return is very simplistic, NPV concept does not hold any more (ROV is a way to go). In summary: an outdated book.
Excellent Job!.......2000-05-24
Michael Allen has portrayed the real meaning of portfolio management in a manner that is readily accessible to business executives. His concept of "full value" is a challenging one for anyone charged with creating value where portfolios of products, business units, R&D projects, and so on, are involved.
Book Description
Finance for Strategic Decision Making demystifies and clarifies for non-financial executives the basics of financial analysis. It shows how they can make important financial decisions that can critically enhance their institution’s ability to respond to competitive challenges, undertake new projects, overcome financial setbacks, and most importantly, create shareholder value. Written by M. P. Narayanan and Vikram K. Nanda—two of the country’s leading authorities on financial strategy—this book offers a practical guide for using financial analysis to enhance strategicdecision making. The book includes a coherent framework that outlines practical and intellectually sound guidance for executives who must make strategic decisions. Finance for Strategic Decision Making
- Explains the role of finance in corporate strategy
- Offers guidance on resource allocation decisions
- Explores how to determine the right balance of debt and equity capital to maximize firm value
- Demonstrates how to use payout policy as a strategic tool
- Clarifies if a merger, acquisition, or divestiture is in the best interest of an organization
- Shows how to manage risk
Reveals how to measure value created and the effectiveness of upper level management
Download Description
Finance for Strategic Decision Making demystifies and clarifies for non-financial executives the basics of financial analysis. It shows how they can make important financial decisions that can critically enhance their institution’s ability to respond to competitive challenges, undertake new projects, overcome financial setbacks, and most importantly, create shareholder value. Written by M. P. Narayanan and Vikram K. Nanda—two of the country’s leading authorities on financial strategy—this book offers a practical guide for using financial analysis to enhance strategicdecision making. The book includes a coherent framework that outlines practical and intellectually sound guidance for executives who must make strategic decisions. Finance for Strategic Decision Making
- Explains the role of finance in corporate strategy
- Offers guidance on resource allocation decisions
- Explores how to determine the right balance of debt and equity capital to maximize firm value
- Demonstrates how to use payout policy as a strategic tool
- Clarifies if a merger, acquisition, or divestiture is in the best interest of an organization
- Shows how to manage risk
Reveals how to measure value created and the effectiveness of upper level management
Customer Reviews:
very helpful.......2005-07-04
As a non-financial manager that had only learned the financial aspects of management "by osmosis" (as the authors say), I've felt this book closed several gaps of financial knowledge, with excellent to-the-point explanations, always backed up with realistic cases. I feel much more confident to make some decisions now, and to defend my points against my CFO (and know when to agree with his). I strongly recommend that book to every manager without an academic background in finance.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book!!!!
- Don't know derivatives? Me neither!
|
Derivatives for Decision Makers: Strategic Management Issues (Wiley Series in Financial Engineering)
George Crawford , and
Bidyut Sen
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Book Description
"A brilliantly conceived and lucidly written exposition of the most important topic on the frontier of modern finance. This book takes the mystery out of derivatives. Bravo!"—John H. Langbein, Professor, Yale Law School
"Derivatives for Decision Makers is a first in explaining derivatives to those who need to understand them. It explains what derivatives are, how they can be used as risk management tools, and what managers and decision makers need to know about the subject. Not only is the technical substance superb, but the form is accessible to all decision makers."—Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss, Director, The World Bank Group
"Derivatives for Decision Makers is an excellent resource for both users and providers of derivative products, regardless of the reader's level of sophistication. The recent highly publicized derivatives problems are objectively reviewed by the authors who contribute important and sensible recommendations to avoid similar situations in the future."—Dipak K. Rastogi, Executive Vice President and former Head of Global Derivatives, Citibank, N. A.
"Derivatives can play a critical role in achieving corporate financing and investment strategies. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned practitioner, Crawford and Sen present a superb roadmap with well-chosen, real-world illustrations. Their vivid insights make this book a 'must-read' for corporate and pension fund managers."—Sandra S. Wijnberg, Vice President & Assistant Treasurer, PepsiCo, Inc.
"Crawford and Sen have done a fine job of making derivatives comprehensible for managers who need to understand the basic features and uses of these instruments. This coverage, together with the book's unique emphasis on senior management's fiduciary obligations to the firm's shareholders, sets this book apart from other attempts to make derivatives accessible to senior management. This book is an important read."—John F. Marshall, Executive Director, International Association of Financial Engineers and Professor of Financial Engineering, Polytechnic University
Derivatives are the power tools that enable users to analyze components of risk and return inherent in an investment or a business. The popularity of derivative use in the marketplace has surged in recent years, spurring financial innovation and better risk management. Yet this popular instrument is double-edged: derivatives are as risky as they are beneficial. In light of recent, highly publicized disasters—the Orange County bankruptcy and the Barings fiasco—it is imperative that business and finance professionals have a current and basic knowledge of this complicated and venturesome field.
If you are a shareholder, director, or other decision maker in a company utilizing derivatives, it is important that you know how to maximize the benefits of derivatives and minimize the damage that they can cause. Now, two leading financial experts provide the solid principles you need to understand and properly use derivative products and structured financing. Starting upwards from the ground floor, this straightforward, no-nonsense resource is replete with tables, graphs, and common examples and common sense, offering invaluable information on:
- The three major types of derivatives-options, futures, and swaps
- Leverage—what it is, why it is so important, how it is used to increase returns, and how it multiplies risk
- Hedging a stock portfolio and hedging industry risk with synthetic futures
- Business risks—core and secondary risks; which business risks to hedge with derivatives
- Investment strategies using derivatives
- Derivative risks—market, credit, legal, and systemic
- Fiduciary duties—the duties of loyalty and care, exceptions, the prudent investor rule, business judgment, rule and disclosure requirements
- Delegating management functions—selecting, instructing, and monitoring experts
Whether you're a manager, director, attorney, accountant, corporate executive, or corporate shareholder, this comprehensive book will prove to be an invaluable guide on utilizing and handling derivatives wisely, resourcefully, and successfully.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book!!!!.......2002-08-17
I loved this book. It was full of information that came alive. This book takes a dry, complex topic, and makes it exciting. It is a must read!!!
Don't know derivatives? Me neither!.......1997-12-03
I really hoped that this book would explain the use of derivatives (a financial risk management tool) is a simple way, but alas, it was still too highbrow for a layperson like me. Perhaps I should have paid more attention in math class, but I still don't really understand how, when, or why to use them. However, I will persevere and find a book that can explain the use of derivatives in a more pedestrian manner. Thanks!
Book Description
academic
Book Description
Risk management is an important skill that can be applied to a wide variety of projects. In an era of downsizing, consolidation, shrinking budgets, increasing technological sophistication, and shorter development times, risk management can provide valuable insights to help key project personnel plan for risks, alert them of potential risk issues, analyze these issues, and develop, implement, and monitor plans to address the issues long before the issues surface as problems and adversely project cost, performance, and schedule.
This important new text defines the steps to effective risk management and helps the reader create a viable risk management process and implement it on their specific project. It will also allow you to better evaluate an existing risk management process, find some of the shortfalls, and develop and implement needed enhancements.
The book helps fill a void that exists in the project risk management literature on desirable risk management process characteristics and considerations for tailoring and implementing the process on a particular project. The material illustrates attributes and practices of sound risk management that can readily be used by both project management and technical practitioners, as well as others that are less familiar with the subject.
Conrow presents more than 200 lessons learned and clearly stated tips that will help you successfully implement risk management, including things to do and traps to avoid, taken from his extensive experience working on a wide variety of projects over 20 years. This includes work performed as a risk management specialist and consultant on Air Force, Army, Navy, DoD, NASA, other government organization, and commercial projects; on hardware-intensive, software-intensive, and mixed projects, with life cycle dollar ranges from several million dollars to many billion dollars. Examples of erroneous risk management practices are given, along with insights to help the reader understand why the practice is flawed and improve their ability to detect other issues that may also be problematic.
Includes 200+ Tips for Sound Project Risk Management
Author: Dr. Edmund H. Conrow CMC, CPCM, PMP, email info@risk-services.com.
Customer Reviews:
Practical insteal of theoretical.......2002-05-05
This book is for risk management professionals, or those who work with risk management (project managers, IT security and business continuity professionals and engineers) who want or need to master advanced risk management techniques based on real world issues and factors. Although the book is focused on risk management from a DoD contracting perspective, the material is applicable to commercial organizations as well. The author provides an appendix that compare DoD contracting and commercial environments to ensure that this book has a wide appeal (A Comparison of Risk Management for Commercial and Defense Programs). Obviously if you work in the DoD contracting industry this book is going to be more applicable.
The book begins with an introduction that discusses risk management, why it's needed and what it is. I felt that this material was too basic for an advanced book, but the subsequent chapters quickly got to the heart of the subject by providing the details for an implementation life cycle of an effective risk management process that consists of:
(1) Implementation
(2) Planning
(3) Identification
(4) Analysis
(5) Managing risks
(6) Monitoring
What makes this book valuable for real world practitioners are the pragmatic advice for developing a risk management process that is based on the lessons learned by the author and best practices. In fact, there are over 250 such lessons learned. These alone make the book worthwhile for even the most experienced practitioner because there are sure to be many that you may not have considered. In addition to the best practices, the author provides pitfalls common to risk management and how to avoid them.
Another aspect of this book that adds value is the use of readily available tools, such as Microsoft Excel, and popular simulation software (CrystalBall) to reinforce the techniques that are described in the book. Overall this is one of the best books on risk management that I own because it goes into deep detail and coves advanced topics. It also is practical instead of theoretical, which sets it apart from most risk management books.
Book Description
Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of individual commitments, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? If it is a series of commitments, how can they be managed? To answer these questions, Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert present research that examines how strategy is actually made by company managers across several levels of an organization. The research penetrates the "black box"of strategy formulation and shows that a company's realized strategy emerges less from the formal statements of corporate strategy, but often out of the pattern of resource commitments that originate across every level of the firm. Drawing on over thirty yeas of research on resource allocation, including studies from Harvard Business School, Stanford, London Business School, and INSEAD, the book's five sections detail the structural characteristics of the resource allocation process, how the process can lead to breakdowns in strategic outcomes, and where top management can intervene to shape desired results. And while the organizing authors connect over three decades of research on resource allocation, they have also included assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The processes described represent the complex reality of strategy formulation in large organizations, but the ideas are presented in a way that enables the reader to access and understand the implications of these complexities. The findings should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioural scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative and instructive.
Customer Reviews:
How to understand the resource allocation process and how to manage its direction.......2007-04-27
My initial reaction to the title was to question which should come first: resource allocation or strategy? Then as I began to read this brilliant book, I understood what Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert's objectives were as co-editors and contributors. As they reveal in the book's Preface, "Our intention in writing this book is threefold: First, we hope to communicate the unique character of the resource allocation process and its link to strategy through the development of a formal model. Second, we hope to show how this model has evolved over 30 years of research development. Finally, we hope to better connect the research on resource allocation to the field of strategy as a whole." Bower and Gilbert brilliantly achieve all three objectives.
The material is carefully organized within six Parts:
I Introduction to the Resource Allocation Process
Overview: how to link resource allocation to strategy; how to model the resource allocation process; what the proper role of strategy making is during organization evolution; and "anomaly-seeking research" which examines 30 years of theory development in resource allocation theory
II When the Bottom-up Process Fails
Overview: when and why the bottom-up resource allocation process fails; the causes and effects of customer power, strategic investment, and the failures of leading firms; the failure of bottom-up strategic processes and the role of top-down disinvestment; and comparing established firms and entrepreneurial start-ups in terms of the process of international expansion
III Restoring the Bottom-up Process
Overview: how to restore the bottom-up process of re4source allocation; strategy making as viewed an iterative process of resource allocation; and beyond resource allocation, how definition and impetus interact to shape strategic outcomes
IV The Need for Top-down Intervention
Overview: when and why corporate intervention in resource allocation is necessary; which corporate-level options to consider when responding to uncertainty in the pursuit of strategic integration; and what the core issues to considering adoption of complex structures and entering into "webs of alliances"
V Outside Commentaries on the RAP Perspective
Overview: John Roberts' thoughts about resource allocation, strategy, and organization; Daniel A. Levinthal's comments on the resource allocation process; Margaret A. Peteraf's views on "research complementarities; and Joel A. Podolny's response to "CEO as Change Agent?"
VI Conclusion
Overview: Bower and Gilbert offer a "revised model of the resource allocation process.
Hopefully the brief comments I presume to provide will enable those who read this review to gain a sense of the scope of coverage by co-editors Bower and Gilbert and other contributors. I agree with them that there has been a need for more and better business research that explains the interaction between organizational and economic forces. The results of recent studies offered in this volume make a significant contribution to filling that need. They give us a much clearer "picture" of how large organizations manage their resources.
As Bower and Gilbert note, "Without exception, these activities are distributed more widely across the organization than is usually imagined. More challenging for both descriptive and normative theories of decision making, activities whose consequences are interdependent will typically proceed independently and simultaneously, posing huge problems where coherence is a central requisite for efficiency and effectiveness."
Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out Jeanne Ross's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Henry Chesbrough's Open Business Models, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, and Wayne Eckerson's Performance Dashboards.
Illuminating diversity, powerful synthesis.......2007-03-16
The chapters of this book cover a wide range of industries, stratgic challenges, and managerial perspectives, and each combines a solid footing in the realities of organizational life with careful and rigorous scholarship. With contributions from such luminaries as Clayton Christensen, and including experts on decision-making, strategy, and industrial economics, this collection of essays shines a light on just about every aspect of strategy-making and implementation.
At the same time, and all the more powerfully, there is a consistent and readily evident thread that runs through it all, a thread made evident in thoughtful summary essays for each section: strategy is what you do, and how you decide what to do is the essence of the strategy process. To guide strategy-making, then, is to shape how decisions are made and direct the allocation of resources -- organizational, financial, and human -- toward specific ends.
Getting stuff done in complex organizations is a messy process, and fraught with difficulty, but the insights available in this book make it clear that if this complexity is to be channelled and controlled, it must be embraced, not ignored. Time spent reading this book and reflecting on the insights its many authors offer will pay large dividends.
Full Disclosure: I contributed a chapter to this publication, and am proud of having my work included in this collection. I offer no opinion on my chapter, and instead comment here only on the other chapters.
A powerful consolidation of 35 years of work.......2006-02-04
Professors Bower and Gilbert have done a fine job of crystalizing the stream of work begun by Professor Bower's 1970 Managing the Resource Allocation Process (RAP). The initial RAP work descriptively presented a more practically satisfying view of how firms arrive at major resource decisions than the prevailing (to this day) mathematical optimization models in economic textbooks. What Professor Bower, and those who followed in this line of research described is far closer to the reality experienced by executives.
In the intervening 35 years quite a few of business academe's leading thinkers have used this three-layer framework to describe and understand the inner workings of complex organizations. In the process, while the basic framework has remained solid, many nuances and implications have emerged. Furthermore, the RAP model has moved from more descriptive toward becoming more prescriptive. Thus RAP has become increasingly relevant to business practice.
Much of this work, however, has appeared in piecemeal fashion -- insightful, but somewhat disconnected from the underlying theory. This book brings together the varied threads of work in a nicely structured, focused volume. The reader receives direct exposure to the leading thinkers in this school of work. The book provides a concise reference point highlighted by specific cases to bring out the subtleties of the theory and usefulness of the RAP. And happily, the quality of the writing is extremely high and approachable, even for the non-academic reader.
While the more practical business executive may find some of this a bit too academic, that academic-ness is necessary to frame such a broad theory of business. Those who undertake reading this book will be rewarded with useful insights and a clearer understanding of what really makes large organizations tick.
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- Survey of Accounting: Making Sense of Business
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- The Book Thief (Book Sense Book of the Year Children's Literature (Awards))
- The Compensation Handbook
- The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America
- The Infinite Asset: Managing Brands to Build New Value
- The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance for Non-Financial Managers
- The Political Economy of the Asian Financial Crisis
- The Ratings Game
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MP Principles of Auditing and Other Assurance Services with Updated Chapters 5, 6 & 7
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Intermediate Accounting
