MP Financial and Managerial Accounting: The Basis for Business Decisions w/ My Mentor, Net Tutor, and OLC w/ PW (Financial and Managerial Accounting)

MP Financial and Managerial Accounting: The Basis for Business Decisions w/ My Mentor, Net Tutor, and OLC w/ PW (Financial and Managerial Accounting)
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MP Financial and Managerial Accounting: The Basis for Business Decisions w/ My Mentor, Net Tutor, and OLC w/ PW (Financial and Managerial Accounting)
Jan Williams , Sue Haka , and Mark S Bettner
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Study Guide, Volume 1, Chapters 1-14 for use with Financial & Managerial Accounting: A Basis for Business Decisions

Working Papers, Volume 1, Chapters 1-14 for use with Financial & Managerial Accounting: A Basis for Business Decisions

Financial & Managerial Accounting

Calculus for Business, Economics, and the Social and Life Sciences, Brief Edition

International Business: The Challenge of Global Competition, with CESIM and OLC access card

ASIN: 0072942827

Book Description

Financial and Managerial Accounting has been updated to incorporate detailed information on recent legislation affecting the accounting profession, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The accompanying CD and PowerWeb applications give you greater interaction and continuously updated information.

Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making

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It's Accounting
Very Practical Book,Classic
No solutions... How are you supposed to check your progress?

Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making
Jerry J. Weygandt , Donald E. Kieso , and Paul D. Kimmel
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Study Guide to accompany Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making, 3rd Edition
Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making
Financial Accounting, with Annual Report
Statistics for Business and Economics (9th Edition)
Essentials of Corporate Finance (Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate)

Accessories:

Study Guide to accompany Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making, 3rd Edition

ASIN: 0471661783

Book Description

Weygandt Managerial Accounting Third Edition gives students the tools they need to succeed, whether as accountants or in other career paths. With a framework in decision-making, Weygandt 3/e covers all the necessary techniques and concepts for a one semester, undergraduate managerial accounting course. Many students in this course are not accounting majors and will need to understand the big picture of accounting. Therefore, Weygandt 3/e provides students with a pedagogy that helps them to build their decision-making skills and to understand how to use accounting information to make quality business decisions in whatever major or career they choose.

Customer Reviews:

It's Accounting.......2006-11-04

I bought this book for a Managerial accounting class. I found that chapters to be well written and the example easy to follow. Enron gets used a lot. What I didn't like was that problems in the back of the book are not as clear as they could be. Most of the time, I plug in the wrong formula. So that part could have been clearer. The answers are all on a CD, that access a website for the answers. So if you like me and still have dial-up, you may have a problem there too. However I am still pulling a B in the class, so I'm getting something.

Very Practical Book,Classic.......2006-01-27

Jerry really knows how to help people learn accounting. Learning accounting is about practising but not reading. Reading helps but it won't solve problems. The one thing I really appreciate about this book is Jerry uses real life accounting practice within companies from different industries to illustrate every single chapter, within which all the accounting theories and principals naturally flow. You can see all the kinds of accounting problems with actual number and data being solved with the application of relevant accounting theories,principals and methods. You know how real things are done. I have read many accounting books, among which loads of books lack exercises for me to practice after I read certain chapter. But buying Jerry's book, you get two books, one for reading, and one for exams. Nearly half of the book is Exam Questions, which emulate my real exams quite well. I can't believe an accounting without good exercise questions is an book. If you seriously want to pass exams and know how the real accounting is done,this is the book for you!

No solutions... How are you supposed to check your progress?.......2005-09-12

This book is good about listing the objectives and showing you exactly where to find the answers for the multiple choice questions. For example: What is the purpose of a job cost sheet? The book highlights the area where the answer is. Easy huh? Well, what about the actual accounting problems? The detailed problems at the end of each chapter have NO SOLUTIONS to them, and you can't buy a solutions guide unless you are an instructor! I'm not an accounting wizard, so I have to actually practice before it sticks in my brain... imagine that. I guess they expect everyone to see the problems and read about the problems and automatically get it. They work out a "Demonstration Problem" for you, but that only applies to some of the problems at the end of each chapter.

Financial and Managerial Accounting: Information for Decisions

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Financial and Managerial Accounting: Information for Decisions
John J. Wild , and Barbara Chiappetta
Manufacturer: Irwin/McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations

ASIN: 0073526681

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

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Against The Gods, a highly recommended book for MBA
So Close to Wonderful
Unpretentious and pleasant
Are you risk-seeker or risk-averse?
A remarkable rational attitude against rational Gods

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Peter L. Bernstein
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover

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Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
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Capital Ideas Evolving

ASIN: 0471121045

Amazon.com

With the stock market breaking records almost daily, leaving longtime market analysts shaking their heads and revising their forecasts, a study of the concept of risk seems quite timely. Peter Bernstein has written a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, beginning with early gamblers in ancient Greece, continuing through the 17th-century French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat and up to modern chaos theory. Along the way he demonstrates that understanding risk underlies everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking.

Book Description

A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller

"Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." -The New York Times

"An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." -The Wall Street Journal

"A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." -Business Week

"Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." -The Economist

"[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." -Worth

"No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." -Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers

"With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." -John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University

In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.

"An extremely readable history of risk." -Barron's

"Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." -Money

"A singular achievement." -Times Literary Supplement

"There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." -The Australian

Customer Reviews:

Against The Gods, a highly recommended book for MBA.......2007-09-18

The reason that I bought this book was because it was highly recommended by the teachers at my MBA class.

They were not kidding, from head to toe its very good and kept my attention till the end. It has been of great help to me. Aside the history content it helps you to think on how to mitigate risk and how improve the opportunities.

So Close to Wonderful.......2007-08-14

Bernstein does an adequate job bringing the concepts together, but this is not a page-turner. I found myself reading on for the promise of insight, and he offers some, but the writing is a bit dull.

Unpretentious and pleasant.......2007-07-10

Bernstein is an interesting writer since he is the consummate finance insider- a practioner, regulator and academic. This range helps and harms the book - in his efforts to render the history of risk, he delves into anecdotal caricatures while amusing definitely smack of basis risk with the underlying ideas that are provocative enough! I found the behavioural finance and derivatives section to be rather basic but then realised the book was written in 1996. It's a pleasant read but a more pragmatic introduction to probability is the infinitely witty Cartoon Guide to Statistics.

Are you risk-seeker or risk-averse?.......2007-07-01

According to this book you are both, it only depends on the point of view that is presented. I enjoy the book from the beginning to end, especially the last three chapters. The history and analysis of rational behavior is enlightening, to anyone who has ever thought about the process of decision.

A remarkable rational attitude against rational Gods.......2007-05-16

2 crucial ponits in this book:

1.Sociological: Bernstein describes how risk was first imagined as an essentially modern cultural form and significantly operationalized in early mercantile capitalist shipping, where individual losses in rapidly expanding global trade become large enough to encourage their socialization in insurance arranegemnts. This book implies some viable if crude forms measurement and scaling of risk. In his narrative, risk was there waiting to be discovered, carrying its own intrinsic meaning, which the visionaries, through their heroic powers of access to msteries of Nature, were able to reveal to men of commerce and others who could then drive the economic, cultural and technological revolution of modernity. We can note from this account of risk how an implicit normative framework`and a claim of control are advanced as defining features of this new state`of enlightenment. It is this scientific risk discourse which gives total control`of `the future at the service of the present', the implication being that risk`analysis identifies and domesticates all significant future consequences of the`relevant actions. In this way ignorance and unanticipated consequences - lack`of control - lying beyond the reach of existing scientific knowledge, thus`potentially embarrassing in future to risk assessment, are seamlessly deleted.`Risk is thus assumed to define the full sphere of conceivable meaning for considering`new technologies and their implications, and science reveals this`independent meaning. (Reference, Wynne:Reflexivity inside out?)

2. Historical: While it is apparent to historians that both Khayyam and Kharazmi were Persian thinkers, the author in keen to be selective inattentive to this fact such that he argues the system of numbers were imported from Arab world to West whereas it was firstly introduced to Arabs at the time Persia was invaded by them. Hence the author's historic mind-set starts from 12th Century while long before which is 500 B.C. risk used to be engineered among Persians. (Reference, Channel History-Engineering an Empire: Persia)

Managerial Accounting: Information for Decisions (with CD-ROM)

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Managerial Accounting: Information for Decisions (with CD-ROM)
Thomas L. Albright , Robert W. Ingram , and John S. Hill
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Financial Accounting: Information for Decisions
Management Science: The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets
Marketing Mistakes and Successes (Marketing Mistakes)
Basic Statistical Ideas for Managers (with CD-ROM)
Business Statistics : For Contemporary Decision Making

ASIN: 0324222432

Book Description

Unlike any other text, Ingram presents managerial accounting as a crucial communication tool for management decision making. Additionally, students learn that service-oriented and product-oriented organizations apply similar approaches to gain accurate, timely information. Throughout the book, managerial accounting is viewed as a key component of multi-disciplinary management-with accountants working as part of a team to resolve questions of costing, pricing, and production.

Average customer rating:

Information for Decisions

Accounting: Information for Decisions
Robert W. Ingram , Thomas L. Albright , Bruce A. Baldwin , and John Hill
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
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Binding: Hardcover

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Study Guide and Forms to Accompany Financial Accounting: Information for Decisions
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Essentials of Statistics for Business and Economics (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac )

ASIN: 0324183968

Book Description

This innovative, user-oriented book focuses on the professional use of accounting information for decision making. It places the reader into situations where management decisions are needed and explains when and why accounting information is a key source of data for making informed strategic choices.

Customer Reviews:

Information for Decisions.......1999-06-02

My stereotype of accounting texts before taking an accounting class and using this book was they were all focused on the mechanics of accounting, which are dull to most students. This textbook, on the other hand, emphasizes the usefulness of accounting in the real world before delving into all the rules and regimentation. Therefore, some subjects, like debts and credits, receive less attention than they might deserve, especially for serious accounting students. The textbook's diagrams are quite colorful and useful, and its language is simple enough for your average student to understand. Hence, I recommend the book to any introductory-level business student, but I think that more serious accounting students might prefer a more advanced or in-depth textbook.

Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions

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Cost Management: Strategies for Business Decisions
Ronald W Hilton , Michael W Maher , and Frank Selto
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Intermediate Accounting
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Intermediate Accounting

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Schaum's Outline of Financial Management
Schaum's Outline of Cost Accounting, 3rd, Including 185 Solved Problems

ASIN: 0072830085

Book Description

Hilton/Maher/Selto (HMS) addresses traditional cost concepts, but makes cost accounting functional by focusing on measuring and managing costs. HMS maintains that, "Costs don’t just happen," and with a pro-active approach toward costs, accountants can add value to an organization. The real-world approach of this text, including the use of focus companies and the accompanying focus sites, provides a realistic business environment, and aids in student comprehension and interest in the subject.

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics

Average customer rating:

Great Introduction to Behavioral Finance
Entertaining and good stuff
One of my favorite personal finance books
Out of the ivory tower and into your real life
Are you mentally fit to make money decisions?

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics
Gary Belsky , and Thomas Gilovich
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684859386

Amazon.com

Why do so many otherwise rational individuals make irrational decisions when it comes to money? Financial journalist Gary Belsky and Cornell University psychology professor Thomas Gilovich contend the answers can be found--and the deficiencies remedied--with help from a relatively new science called behavioral economics. Still largely unknown outside academic circles, the field can be traced to research on the impact of rewards and punishments on human judgment and decision- making that first were undertaken at Jerusalem's Hebrew University some 30 years ago. In Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes , Belsky and Gilovich update this pioneering work and show readers how to understand exactly why they invest, spend, and save as they do. More importantly, using examples that everyone can identify with and language that anyone can understand, the authors offer dozens of workable suggestions that can help readers manage their money better. "We believe that by identifying the psychological causes behind many types of financial decisions," they write, "you can effectively change your behavior in ways that will ultimately put more money in your pocket and help you keep more of what you already have." --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Why do so many otherwise smart people make foolish financial choices? Why do investors sell stocks just before they skyrocket -- and cling to others as they plummer? Why do shoppers overspend when using credit cards rather than cash? What do our habits of tipping or buying lottery tickets indicate about our relationship with money?

In this fascinating investigation of the ways we spend, invest, save, borrow, and waste money, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich reveal the psychological causes -- the patterns of thinking and decision making -- of irrational behavior. Most important, they focus on the decisions we make every day and, using entertaining examples, provide invaluable tips on avoiding the financial faux pas that can cost thousands of dollars each year.

Download Description

Why do so many otherwise smart people make foolish financial choices? Why do investors sell stocks just before they sky rocket -- and cling to others as they plummet? Why do shoppers overspend when using credit cards rather than cash? What do our habits of tipping or buying lottery tickets indicate about our relationship with money? In this fascinating investigation of the ways we spend, invest, save, borrow, and waste money, Gary, Belsky and Thomas Gilovich reveal the psychological causes -- the patterns of thinking and decision-making -- that result in irrational behavior. Most importantly they focus on the decisions we make everyday and, using entertaining examples, provide invaluable tips on avoiding the financial faux pas that can cost thousands of dollars each year.

Customer Reviews:

Great Introduction to Behavioral Finance.......2007-07-21

For more than 20 years I have been fascinated why so many people make financial decisions which defy rationality. Unfortunately, I find it extremely difficult to read and comprehend most of the research papers that has been done in the field of behavioral finance. The last 5 years have seen several good books explaining the results of the emerging field of behavioral finance. This book is one of those good books.

As a fan of index funds, I enjoyed reading this book's explanation and recommendation for suggesting index funds.

This book is very readable and is an excellent primer on the major concepts which are emerging from behavioral finance research.

Socrates was right when he uttered his famous quote "Know Thy Self". One of the hardest things to do is to understand why we do what we do sometimes. This book helps explain some of this natural human behavior, and how we can manage it to make more rational financial decisions.

I would suggest companion books to supplement this book including:

Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
How to Use Psychology to Achieve Your Financial Goals
Are You Using the Right Rules to Plan Your Retirement?
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

Entertaining and good stuff.......2007-07-03

The book is easy to read and it also covers a lot of interesting topics. Highly recommended.

One of my favorite personal finance books.......2007-05-15

It's been years since I first read this book, but I still reference it often when talking about money decisions. It's readable, fun, and informative. I also enjoy the situational questions that begin each chapter. Even when you can see what point they're getting it, it's easy to see yourself making the same mistake in a moment of decision.

Out of the ivory tower and into your real life.......2007-01-09

this book is an easy well-written guide to understanding the academic field of behavioral economics and to bring it into the real world of our lives. The original research studies are really dry and hard to read even for a psychologist (I am one).....this is reader friendly and practical. Helped me understand some of the errors I made and still fall into....like noticing the stocks I have really done well with and forgetting about the ones that did not do so well so I think I have done really well in the market the past year..but then I look at the cold hard numbers and guess what? I did not do nearly as well I thought. Very helpful to use with patients who are having credit card woes (future dollars are so cheap). Dr. Mary Gresham Atlanta Ga

Are you mentally fit to make money decisions?.......2006-12-21

This book helps to show you some of the common pitfalls that people make when making decisions involving money. While there are topics related to investing, there are also general "money-decision" topics. There were actually some mistakes that I did not even think of but when I read them I realized that many of my friends made these mistakes. For me the biggest lesson that I learned was the part about mental accounting. This is one of those books that you think is all common sense but when you think about it, you realize that you too make these mistakes.

Accounting for Decision Making and Control

Average customer rating:

Excellent book
Worse book in my entire MBA program
Bloated with Homework Problems
Great book!
Think Management Accounting Rather Than Cost Accounting

Accounting for Decision Making and Control
Jerold Zimmerman
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Principles of Corporate Finance + Student CD + Ethics in Finance PowerWeb + Standard and Poor's (McGraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Est)

ASIN: 0072975865

Book Description

Accounting for Decision Making and Control by Jerry Zimmerman continues to grow in popularity with instructors due to its emphasis on teaching students to critically evaluate and solve actual business problems. Zimmerman is able to achieve this through: 1) Strong conceptual framework; 2) Business orientation focusing on how organizations work; 3) Balance between concepts & practice; 4) Strongest problem material available.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book.......2007-03-02

It contains philosophy and present contept to apply to the decision making. Managerial accounting is more than journal entry and computation. It's about decision making and performance evaluation.

Worse book in my entire MBA program.......2006-11-14

Beware ! This book does perhaps the poorest example explaining any concepts. I have never had so much stress in my life than taking a managerial accounting class with this book. I mean I actually couldn't sleep because of this book!
I took this class last year and I just finished my MBA and I am working on my Phd now, and I thought I would reflect and give some valuable advice to you, my fellow students.

If you don't have a prior managerial accounting background, go read as much as you can before you get into this book. Or you will be completely stressed out, lost and feel that you are a dummy. This book makes smart students feel dum. I mean really dum. You are not dum, the book just lacks clear explanations.

This book deals mostly with managerial accounting. For example if you are paid $100 per day at your job, really you are costing the company more than what you are being paid, really you use resources, like from human resources who hired you, electricity costs, phone costs, IT, etc, so your true cost to the company broken down is probably $160 per day. This is called cost allocation, in a crude example.

Easy concept right?, Just that you will not be able to learn this easily from this book unless you have a deep prior background in this. The good examples Zimmerman(author) gives are spoiled by the majority of his jargon and bad examples.

I honestly found myself at one point reading 1 page for over an hour to understand! (and I am a high A student). In my entire MBA program, I never had a worse book, nor more stress!!!

Ultimately, I had to do many exhaustive Internet searches to learn cost allocation theory.

Some reasons why this book is so bad:

(1) Does not explain many concepts with clear explanations
(2) Uses too much jargon
(3) Shows graphs and vital data one the next pages instead of including them on the same page, Imagine as you read you have to constantly change the page to see the graphs and charts, Very poor!
(4) Zimmeran doesn't want to teach, rather he wants to prove to you that he is smart!

(5) THE WORST
Perhaps the worst is the homework problems in the back. Zimmerman (the author) does not give sufficient examples of how to solve these examples. Nor does the book give the answers. Also, some problems are extremely hard, even the professor of the class had difficulty solving and explaining this. What is the goal of a book if students have to search elsewhere and be stressed out to learn?

I would say that this book is like taking a class in Algebra and having questions and concepts explained in Calculus.

Again, if you don't have a prior background in any of this, go take a class at a junior college on cost accounting to prepare for this book, you will need it. Or you too will be so stressed out!!

Jerold Zimmerman, please don't take personal offense, you may be a smart guy, but the art of education is explaining concepts easily and showing your work, which in my opinion and my fellow students' opinion, overall this book lacks.

GOOD LUCK to all students, and my prayers are with you if you have this book.

Bloated with Homework Problems.......2005-08-30

The most surprising thing was how much of the book is homework problems (blue pages). Viewed edge-on they appear to be ~50% of the pages. Many problems are excessively wordy, fine as novellos but reading 2 pages to get to the issues is often tedious. The text is well written, but I didn't find the subject to have as much meat as other MBA subjects like Finance or Operations Research. I understand it is one of the better books on Managerial Accounting. I have 27 years experience at many companies, so others might find the material more enlightening.

Great book!.......2002-12-24

The great take away from this book is that executives try hard to achieve the optimal solutions for management problems, but that they seldomly succeed. The reason: they underestimate the creativity of their sub-ordinates (and their superiors).
For ages students and lecturers thought management accounting was dull. Zimmerman shows how fascinating this subject can be. The decision making parts show how to calculate optimal solutions for management accounting problems, the control parts make your realize how difficult it is to make the optimal solutions come true. The implication: the amount of consulting work to be done is infinite.

Think Management Accounting Rather Than Cost Accounting.......2002-10-24

Too often management accounting is completely subsumed in cost accounting. Yes, they are part of the same topic, but they have somewhat different emphases. This book covers costs, but it is really more focused on how you allocated decision rights, set measurement criteria, and how you reward people to get the behavior you want. It is also very helpful in clarifying thinking about what could be going wrong if you aren't getting the behavior you wanted out of a given system of measurement and reward.

The writing is very good and the organization of the book is sound and helpful. While there are charts and graphs it is not a book full of color and pictures. It is a book with words and ideas that are helpfully supplemented as needed. But the self-study problems and cases are set off from the main text by being on different color pages. This helps in locating what you are after.

There is a wealth of thought provoking problems and short cases to help promote discussion and provoke your thinking on the topics discussed in each chapter.

Another aspect of the book I really like are the concept questions in each chapter that help you gauge your understanding of what you have just read. The solutions for these are provided in the back of the book so you can know if you are "getting it" or not.

This is a fine and very useful text.

Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management: From Data to Decisions (Wiley Best Practices)
Average customer rating:

Best Practices to create value

At last a reasonable definition for best practice

How to shorten cycle time and implement decisions

illuminating insights

Practical & easy to read

Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management: From Data to Decisions (Wiley Best Practices)
David A. J. Axson
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accounting Best Practices

ASIN: 0470008571

Book Description

If you are looking to significantly upgrade your management practices to better meet the needs of today’s increasingly volatile, complex, competitive, and global markets, look no further. Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management Reporting, Second Edition provides you with an accessible framework to help any business unite its reporting and budgeting functions to achieve its strategic objectives.

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

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