Editorial Review

Buffett, the Bard of Omaha, is a genuine American folk hero, if folk heroes are allowed to build fortunes worth upward of $15 billion. He's great at homespun metaphor, but behind those catchy phrases is a reservoir of financial acumen that's generally considered the best of his generation. For example, in an essay on CEO stock options, he writes, "Negotiating with one's self seldom produces a barroom brawl." This is his way of saying that an executive who can give himself compensation totally disproportionate to his performance surely will. There are uncountable gems of financial wisdom to be harvested from these essays, taken from the annual reports he writes for Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company. Just to pick one more, here's a now-famous line about those he competes with when making stock-market investments: "What could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest--whether it be chess, bridge, or stock selection--than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy?"Read more

Reviews (56)

Right to the Point

They call him Warren Buffett for a reason
This excellent book was hard to put down.Mr. Buffett is as innately talented a writer as he is a businessman.The bookfunny, entertaining and highly informative, is sure to add significantly to the knowledge of any aspiring investor.Buffett takes topics like corporate accounting malfeasance and makes you laugh at them while at the same time providing profound insight into the inner workings of the corporate enviornment.This title is definatly one you will want to own.

Great summary of Warren Buffett's thoughts
Good book! Definitely one of the bests written about Warren Buffett.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business & Economics / Accounting / General    3. Business & Economics / Consolidation & Merger    4. Business & Economics / Investments & Securities    5. Business / Economics / Finance    6. Business/Economics    7. Corporate Finance    8. Accounting    9. Consolidation and merger of corporations    10. Corporate governance    11. Corporations    12. Finance    13. Investments    14. Stocks    15. United States   

Reviews (41)

Effect of The Distribution of Advocacy Scores
By definition, the net promoter score is the percentage of respondents falling into the 9-10 range minus the percentage falling into the 0-6 range.Consequently, very different distributions of advocacy scores can yield the same net promoter score; for example, all of the response distributions shown below yield net promoter scores of 40.
Good book.. Very interesting
Good book. I think it is important that the author comments that the ultimate question could be different depending on the industry or product/service. Worth the read!

An Easy Read With Great Content
I read the original Harvard Business Review article, and thought I understood the concept.However, reading the book was inspiring, and I applied the concepts to our business immediately.The NPS methodology is so simple, but so powerful.The original aim of the method is to evaluate customer satisfaction, but I also recently applied it to reference checking for a job candidate.By asking if the reference would recommend that their best friend go to work for this candidate, I was able to build a surprisingly helpful picture of the leadership qualities of the individual under consideration.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Consumer satisfaction    5. Corporate Finance    6. Customer Service    7. Customer loyalty    8. Customer relations    9. Development - Business Development    10. Employee Training And Development    11. Management - General    12. Management & management techniques   

Editorial Review

Spawned by a 10-year study of 2,000 firms conducted at Bain & Company, a global consultancy specializing in business strategy, Read more

Reviews (28)

Define your core business clearly
The authors of this book see 3 essential elements separating a good growth strategy, one that is successful from a poor growth strategy, one that fails:
Skip this one and read the sequel instead
This is not a terrible book- it has some interesting case studies which the authors use to prove their points. However, there is not a great deal in here that is new if you've read the sequel to this book first ("Beyond the Core", Zook), and have read other
Very Realistic and very useful
This book is very good, it explains very clearly the different growth concepts with clear definitions, and a very interesting growth matrix. in addition, unlike other books, this book uses a lot of real world examples to illustarte the different concepts and growth startegies. It explains how companies, that succeded, evolved from their core business and developed new products without getting lost in the process. Also, explains why and how some companies failed. The book is realistic, and gives you some tools and matrix that you can apply when analyzing and developing a growth strategy. You should also check out the web site, it has some examples of how to apply the gowth matrix. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate & Business History - General    5. Corporate Finance    6. Corporate profits    7. Corporations    8. Entrepreneurship    9. Growth    10. Industrial management    11. Management - General    12. Strategic Planning    13. Business strategy   

Reviews (4)

confusing and unwieldy
I am sad to report that this book is an inadequate and frustrating introduction to finance. Important concepts are buried; there are no derivations; there are few clear explanations of concepts; and definitions of terms are sparse at best. The many jokes come as a welcome relief from the generally poor writing, but provide no educational value. The book is rendered even more confusing because its organization is wayward, jumping unpredictably back and forth between topics. Overall, I find this textbook to be incredibly opaque, and I constantly have to supplement my readings elsewhere. If you have had prior exposure to finance, then I suspect this textbook will be far more digestible, but if this is your first exposure to the field you may wish to try an alternate text.

a few arguments don't make sense
The book is generally very well written. However if it is intended for beginners, sometimes it is too confusing. There are a few arguments in which the conclusions, although correct, just simply don't follow from the premises. The readers, therefore, need to put their inquiring nature aside and trust the authors. It is good to know that these guys are leaders in their field.

Principles of Corporate Finance + Student CD + Ethics in Finance PowerWeb + Standard and Poor's (McGraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Fin
Quality book. Received in a timely manner. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Budgeting & financial management    8. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance   

Reviews (9)

One of the best choice
As a lecturer in corporate finance, I should advice to everyone to consider this book. In some 1000 pages, it summarize all different aspects of finance.
Great Book for people who want it from the beginning
This is a great book if you want to start exploring finance area. The online material is pretty good as well, the only minus is the price (which is still OK for a book like that...)

Review of Ross, et al's Corporate Finance
Found the book was well laid out and covered all the relevant topics very well.Book was also very readable for a text book on corporate finance.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance    6. Finance   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Finance    6. Management - General    7. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance    8. Business & Management    9. Economics, Finance, Business and Industry   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Capital asset pricing model    5. Finance    6. Investments & Securities - General    7. Portfolio management    8. Prices    9. Securities    10. Business & Economics / Finance    11. Corporate finance    12. Economic theory & philosophy    13. Economics    14. Investment & securities   

Reviews (7)

Excellent Self Study
The text is very easy to read and simple to follow along.The self study guide that comes with it is very handy to get a full understanding of the mathematical equations.I was disappointed that the weblink provided in the book to get more up to date information from Standard & Poor's was not working.I had to order the 11th edition for my second finance class but that was by order of the university.When the 11th edition arrived the weblink in that book worked.I really enjoy reading the book on my commute to and from work.I recommend this book to even the curious person who wants a better understanding of retirement and pension plans.
Foundations of Financial Management, 10th Edition
Delivery was terrific.I received the book 6 days after I ordered it and it's brand new!

Excellent Finance Starter
This book is very easy to follow and serves as a good reference for more advanced finance classes. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Managerial Finance   

Reviews (1)

great book
bought the book for a bit cheaper than the price cover but got exactly what i paid for on time. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Finance    6. Managerial Finance    7. Budgeting & financial management    8. Business & Economics / Finance   

Reviews (4)

Excellent text
I really enjoyed using this text book. It is clearly written and the student CD really helped me learn the material.

Excellent readibility and examples, did well in class
I purchased this book for a class where it was required, but saved $ by purchasing through amazon.I paid about $120 and see that the price has gone up in the last 2 months.This book seems long but is filled with examples of calculations and process.I found that reading the book gave me a clearer and more thorough explanation than even my teacher could give.I have learned a lot and would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to learn finance.

Good Text For Beginners
I am a non-finance major and this book helped me get through the class very well. Not only does the author explain the material in common language, but it is an easy reader.My favorite part of the book is the CD that comes with it.It has a lot of interactive ways to learn the material, from quizzes to narrative Power Points. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Finance    6. Budgeting & financial management    7. Business & Economics / Finance   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance   

Reviews (12)

Great Fundamentals, needs more specificty
the direction the book takes you based on fundamentals of valuation is great. But it tends to be "vague" in some places. for example, it would say, "to calculate ROIC, you add up operating assets and subtract operating liabilities (accts payable, notes payable, etc)." it is the "etc's" that are annoying. Because as we all know, every financial statement, in this case, the balance sheets, all have different line items. So, the etc's point in the right direction but only help you out with direction but not specifics.

This is a review of only the CD - i.e., Excel model
Let me say that I like the McKinsey model and use it a lot to value certain companies.Overall, I found that the Results section of the model really helped me understand the detailed nuances of the McKinsey model, especially given that the book itself is sometimes vague.
Good Read
While I have only done a bit reading on this book, it is well written in the sense that it does not read like a textbook. The examples given are more interesting to read about and I highly recommend this book ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Handbooks, manuals, etc    8. Valuation    9. Budgeting & financial management    10. Business & Economics / Finance   

Reviews (4)

Horrible Book
The only great thing about this book is its small size and thats about it. The text doesn't do a very good job of explaining the ideas and concepts. Say you are given certain parts of an equation it doesn't really show you how to use to components to solve for the right number. Instead it gives you a wonderful GENERAL overview of an idea that is minimal in explanation. I'm almost at the point of flipping out because the lack of explanations and I'm only on Chapter 2.

Minimally helpful text
Don't be excited about this book's small size and light weight, the text needs more examples to support you while doing homework.Breif chapter explantions caused me to nearly fail my class.Was NOT a gret book, in fact many students complained to the Dean regarding this book.Good luck.

excellent condition
The book was exactly what I was looking for and in excellent condition just like the seller said. The book arrived in the expected time frame as well. I would buy from this seller agin. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Budgeting & financial management    8. Business & Economics / Finance   

Reviews (5)

An excellent text book...
For those who are interested in getting knowledge in finance, this is an excellent source. Besides a friendly theory explanation, all chapters bring a list of exercises to set the most important points covered in each one. I do recommend it.

Very concise and an extremely good
I really like this good. It is very concise but it covers everything on corporate finance. I've been using it for over a month in my corporate finance class and it had surpasses my expectations.

Great book
Great book for corporate finance! It's very clear and simple. This book is an excellent choice for students who are new to corporate finance. I highly recommend it. All the books of these authors are great. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Budgeting & financial management    8. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance   

Reviews (2)

It is definitely not a book for PhD level
The book suggests it serves as a first course in finance for PhD students, and a second course in finance for master students. But as I see it, it is too shallow for PhD level reading, as it never explain some complicated derivation clear enough. You don't know how some statements or conclusions come from. There is just not enough explanation. I mean, the author could have said that "after some derivations" or "it can be shown that...", but they just give some results without mentioning whether it can be derived with some convoluted math but because it is out of the depth of the book, only the result is given, or it just comes easily from the assumptions or conditons. I have to figure their logic since usually I just like to thought about how to derive a result as I am supposed to read it as a first book in finance for a PhD student. Many times I have to give up figuring, as the steps the authors take from the conditions to the results are usually too big to guess. So I ended up with treat this book as an ElEMENTARY level book, giving up any derivation and analyzing, just taking the results as granted.
It's a masterpiece!
"Financial theory and corporate policy" is THE theory-of-finance book. It is so well-written, concise, and most importantly, it gives you the framework of conceptual knowledge and intuition to understand what the literature on financial theory is trying to do and how it all fits together. It is appropriate for a second course in finance or a first PhD level course. The building blocks needed to get the most out of this text is matrix algebra, elementary calculus (integrals and differentials), intermediate microeconomics, basic statistics (regression analysis), some optimization (min and max of functions), and basic financial skills such as discounting, the use of cash flows, pro forma income statements and balance sheets. The book has excellent appendices if you lack or need to brush up on these topics. Also, after each chapter state-of-the-art references are listed, very useful if you want to delve a little deeper. To summarize, I just love this book, and I think you will too. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    8. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Finance    6. Budgeting & financial management    7. Business & Economics / Finance   

Reviews (17)

Great source for managers
This is one of those few books that is simple yet not simplistic. Book is written for corporate managers whose job responsibility is outside the decipline of finance, however who can benefit from knowing the finance at the fundamental level. Book does not go into "mechanics" of finance and focuses more on the "essense" of finance. Written with the simplicity of small business yet with questions to be asked in large corporations. I would strongly recommend this book to all my managers.

Very helpful and on an understandable level.
Helpful to managers to give them insight into where accountants are projecting and where hard numbers are coming from.You are able to see sources of manipulation.

Strongly recommended to all business managers, both the novice and the experienced
Financial Intelligence: A Manager's Guide To Knowing What The Numbers Really Mean by Karen Berman and Joe Knight (owners of the Los Angeles-based Business Literacy institute) with management expert John Case is an innovative and "user friendly" instructional guide to proper and intelligible management of finances and business oriented decision making. Financial Intelligence is an impressive compendium of guidelines and information including the basics of financial measurement, reading income statements, balancing sheets, cash flow statements, separating hard data from the assumptions and estimates, the mechanics of analysis, calculating ratios, return on investment, working on capital, knowing the difference between cash and profit, financial literacy and transparency and how to recognize how the two can boost performance. Financial Intelligence is very strongly recommended to all business managers, both the novice and the experienced, as everyone has something to learn.
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Subjects:  1. Accounting - Financial    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business Writing    5. Business/Economics    6. Cash Management    7. Corporate Finance    8. Corporations    9. Finance    10. Financial Accounting    11. Financial statements    12. Management - General    13. Management & management techniques   

Reviews (5)

Will not learn Fundamentals by example
This book was purchased as recommended by the teacher. It is great for general theory and understanding.
Principles of Finance
Very helpful book.Has many features to help learn the material well.I would recommend it too anyone.

A Wonderful Resource - Excellent for CFA Studies
Brigham & Young's book is prescribed for the CFA curriculum.I find Fundamentals of Financial Management to be excellent in all respects.Twenty years ago, I studied earlier editions of Fundamentals and Intermediate Financial Management while earning my MBA.I was impressed then and I am even more impressed with the authors efforts now.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Corporations    6. Finance    7. Management - General    8. Budgeting & financial management    9. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance   

Reviews (26)

A Great Place to Start
I've recently begun investing in stocks, but I knew nothing about financial reports or accounting.Now I do. Not only did I learn a lot from Ittelson, I want to know more!I liked this book because it was easy to get through (the writing is straightforward and the font is BIG), it utilizes a building-block method of learning, and employs a fictional company from page one to illustrate all the concepts of financial reports.If you're a beginner, this is a great place to start.

Simply The Best!
A solid foundation is critical to understanding concepts. So you'd think most books would spend a lot of time ensuring and clarifying the basics, right? Wrong! Simply not true! Most of the accounting/finance books just don't get into clarifying the very basics - the confusing array of terms used, how they fit together, what they actually mean in a realworld setting, etc.
Good Choice for Beginners
Although the first half of the book seems naive even for begginers, second half reveals to be much better as author explains dinamics of connections among financial statements through a very interesting sequence of day-to-day operations of a simplified applesauce factory. In fact, even more experienced people would enjoy reading this part, as it is very clarifying. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Accounting - Financial    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. Corporate Finance    6. Finance    7. Financial statements    8. Financial reporting, financial statements    9. Small businesses & self-employed   

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Corporate Finance    5. Budgeting & financial management    6. Business & Economics / Corporate Finance