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In Search of Shareholder Value: Managing the Drivers of Performance (2nd Edition)
Andrew Black , Philip Wright , and John E. Bachman Manufacturer: Financial Times/Prentice Hall ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0273650831 |
Book Description
Shareholder value-- the real key to creating wealth. --Fortune MagazineCustomer Reviews:
Keep it Simple.......2003-05-14
Mr. Black - I stand by my judment, Your book is unscientific.......2002-10-03
(2) EVA implies linear simulation, CFROI non-linear simulation (e.g. experience curve effects).
(3) CFROI can be more easily aligned mit Real Options for strategic decisions.(e.g: the experience-curve-effect is a system dynamics modell for a dynamic Cournot/Nash-Oligopoly, which includes a Real Option for capacity extension during the growth phase of an homogenous product one produces with a substitutional technology with an S-shaped path for performance improvements ). If you try to align EVA with Real Options, you run the danger of creating unrealistic scenarios, which violate the laws of oligopolistic theory .
(4) EVA encourages managers to milk a business as it is based on linear depreciation concepts,nominal values,undervalues growth options, and implies linear simulation.
(5) In my 1998 edition there were indeed many mathematical errors (e.g. On the last past text page there was a formula with missing brackets). Your definitions of EVA and CFROI were grossly simplified, and can lead novices to misunderstandings.
(6) Your book fails to mention, that VBM requires consolidated financial statements for the last 5 years, and it does not explain, how to filter the relevant data. E.G: To use VBM in a senseful way, you must factor out transfer pricing, tax shelter effects, accounting distortions by cost budgeting techniques, the shelter effect of financial leverage e.g. Copelands 'Valuation' covers those topics without shocking novices with overly complex formulas - but your book totally ignores these topics.
(7) Some pictures in Your book have got a striking similarity with some charts in earlier editions of Copelands 'Valuation', but You did not have the courtesy to thank Copeland/McKinsey.
(8) You do not warn the reader about the dangers of VBM: Milking a business. If EVA/economic profit had an effect on industrial productivity, we would expect the UK to have the highest productivity in the world, because economic profit was invented by british companies such as BTR and Hanson in the late 1960's. The opposite is true !! In the 1970's the british industry collapsed - because economic profit + primitive linear simulation methods encouraged british managers to milk their companies, keeping prices high and deffering investments, until their assets/market share shrank below minimum-efficient scales.
A chart in Copeland 'Valuation' shows, that in the 1970/1980#s british productivity stagnated both in absolute and relative terms - while german and japanese companies manged to catch up.
Michael Gould "Corporate Level Strategy" ( a Boston Consulting Group publication which dates back to 1994) describes in much detail, how your 'financial controll style' encouraged BTR and Hanson to withdraw from high technology, to burn out assets and employes, to defer any investment in quality, research and education. Poorly applied Economic-Profit-Models were not the only reason for Great Britains industrial decline, but they did reinforce other problems: notoriously confrontational labour-relations and a poor level of professional education. If a CEO milks his company, cutting down investment in education/new machinery, his labour union will retaliate and do the same,asking for higher wages.
Summary: Your book has no scientific value and proposes a grossly simplified approach to VBM, that leads to desastrous, strategic mistakes. Poor Economic-Profit-Models achieved in no more than two decades, what 6 years of incessant bombing by the German Luftwaffe in world war two did NOT achieve: The total desindustrialisation of Great Britain. An industrial heritage created over a period of 100 years was sold off for a few years of high shareholder value.
Does that mean, that VBM is nefarious ? No, it does not.
VBM has got a future, if you ask real experts to simulate CFROI with system dynamics models and Real Options. CFROI, real options and system dynamics were first applied by the Boston Consulting Group back in the early 1970's - about 30 years ago. Therefore I stand by my judgement: Your book is dangerous and not scientific.
An Author comments !.......2002-07-09
Public-Relations-Appetizer - no scientific value.......2001-05-24
I know what I am saying, because I have got a degree in Business Administration and 6 years of experience as a consultant. Their book is superficial, and most mathematical formulas have been simplified, so that they are wrong. This book does give you an overview over Shareholder-Value-Methods and it might entertain a layman, but it does NOT - enable you to calculate SHV - enable you to design Value-Based-Management-Systems (VBM) - enable you to integrate VBM with ERP-Software such as SAP R/3
The book does not catch the underlying microeconomic logic behind shareholder-value-methods, its explanation of CFROI is wrong,and it does not warn you about the downsides of EVA: - the tendency to milk a business because EVA does not force a manager to reinvest assets at their replacement cost - EVA'distortion by inflation - its low correllation with shareholder value
It seems, that this book has been hastily scribbled together by a ghost writer, who stole most formulas und most charts from Copeland#s McKinsey-Handbook 'Valuation', but who did not have the courtesy to quote his source.
All in all, this book is worthless. Anybody with a serious interest in Shareholder-Value should read Copeland 'Valuation'.
Easy to read, well laid out for a complex subject.......2001-03-17
But for investors looking in from the outside, SV becomes difficult to implement. For example, what truly is EBITDA? Cash Flow? Which one? These illusive investor numbers make the SV process hard to implement for those of us without access to the real corporate books. Or at least, the process of determining the correct numbers is more difficult than the SV process lets on... in the world where accounting numbers and forecasts can be made to be anything the CEO or CFO want.
All in all, this methodology has brought a revolution to the corporate financial world. Divisions can now be compared with more rigor. This book easily and clearly explains the logic. The authors care about their subject and it shows.
John Dunbar
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In Search of Values: 31 Strategies for Finding Out What Really Matters Most to You
Dr. Sidney B. Simon Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0446394378 |
Book Description
Simon contends that the more we understand our own values, the better equipped we are to make the best choices for a happy and productive life. In a dynamic tool for personal growth--a companion to Values Clarification--he provides guided exercises to help readers determine what really counts.Customer Reviews:
Not strategies, no focus.......2006-03-23
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True Esoteric Traditions: A Search for the Source of Western Cultural Values
M. Dale Palmer Manufacturer: Noetics Institute ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0964263300 |
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Day of Reckoning: Columbine and the Search for America's Soul
Wendy Murray Zoba Manufacturer: Brazos Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items: ASIN: 1587430010 |
Customer Reviews:
saturated with religious fat.......2004-03-25
An All-Right Book.......2002-11-23
But I do think that the author should have had more info on Eric and Dylan. I'm also personally very skepticial on the notions that Cassie was the one who said "yes" and that Rachel Scott was the Rachel that was named on the "basement tapes".
Good but a question at begining.......2002-11-01
It is a ok book about Columbine.......2002-06-21
Awesome, Thorough, Zoba did her homework.......2002-01-07
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Latin American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: Man, Values, and the Search for Philosophical Identity (Frontiers of Philosophy)
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0879753331 |
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In Search of the Saveopotomus (reissue) (Serendipity)
Stephen Cosgrove Manufacturer: Price Stern Sloan ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0843104295 |
Book Description
The nervous Hordasaurus worries about the other creatures stealing his treasures, until he meets the Saveopotomas and learns that it is better to share with his friends and keep only what he needs.Customer Reviews:
I remember reading this often..........2004-09-28
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In Search of Business Value: Ensuring a Return on Your Technology Investment
Robert L. McDowell , and William L. Simon Manufacturer: Select Books (NY) ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1590790626 |
Book Description
In today's high-tech business world, few issues are more important than how companies can gain competitive advantage from using new technology, especially information technology (IT). In 'In Search of Business Value', Microsoft vice president Robert McDowell and best-selling business author William L. Simon address that problem head-on, describing the steps every organization must take to "get the best bang from each buck spent" on IT infrastructure.Drawing on their own personal experience and that of over twenty-five corporate and IT leaders from the worlds of business and government, 'In Search of Business Value' covers in detail such issues as bringing organizational leaders on board in promoting the use of IT, enlisting staff support, using IT to lower costs and improve productivity, integrating the IT and business sides of an organization, and using IT to support best business practices.
IT these days is an indispensable tool in defining and achieving corporate goals. 'In Search of Business Value' is an indispensable tool for corporate leaders and managers looking to make IT work successfully for their organizations.
Customer Reviews:
Spread the enlightenment!.......2006-06-20
A no-nonsense guide to steering clear of trouble .......2005-06-13
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The Three Pillars of Judaism: A Search for Faith and Values
Jonathan Wittenberg Manufacturer: Trinity Press International ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0334026652 |
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The Spirit Searches Everything: Keeping Life's Questions
Frederick Borsch Manufacturer: Cowley Publications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1561012262 |
Book Description
In an inquisitive and pastoral voice, the author takes on the matters of thinking, awareness, creation, the possibility of a Spirit of life that underlies it all, good, evil, and meaning.
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Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century: The Human Condition, Values, and the Search for Identity
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1573929786 |
Book Description
This excellent collection is the most complete anthology of Latin American philosophers in English available today. Updated and revised, LATIN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY combines the richness, the diversity, and the intensity of twenty-three great minds -- the result of which is a testament to the philosophical power that is uniquely Latin American. Though the main focus is upon the rich contemporary period, several key texts from the colonial and independentist period are included to provide the reader with some historical background. Dividing the work into four major sections -- Colonial Beginnings and Independence, Philosophical Anthropology, Values, and The Search for Identity -- the editors complement their selections with introductions to the themes covered in each section and brief biographies of each author. An up-to-date bibliography provides the reader with information on the latest work done in the field, both in English and Spanish.This outstanding compilation is accessible enough to serve as an introduction to the field, while at the same time it is sufficiently sophisticated to be of use even to advanced scholars specializing in Latin American philosophy. It will serve as an important resource for students and teachers dedicated to a more pluralistic canon of philosophical texts.
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Silicon Gold Rush: The Next Generation of High-Tech Stars Rewrites the Rules of Business
Karen Southwick Manufacturer: Wiley ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 0471246468 |
Amazon.com
The fortunes generated by America's technology companies--from Hewlett Packard to PeopleSoft--have created tremendous pressure to generate more fortunes. These financial windfalls have resulted from efforts to identify markets that haven't yet been served, create products for those markets, build a dominant position, and then maintain that market share by continually improving the original product while also pursuing new avenues of enrichment. Silicon Gold Rush looks at this new business model and the management style that makes it possible. Gone is hierarchical management. If a new idea can't be implemented until it's gone up a ladder of managers and committees, then there's no point in bothering; a competitor with less bureaucracy will beat you to the market with something similar.Besides flattening out management structures, high-tech companies have also created an entirely new take on employee relations. The engineer or programmer or salesperson walking out the door at the end of the day carries the future of the business in his or her head. Give that person a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum, and in a wink he or she is working for your competitor. Karen Southwick presents this new business paradigm in plain English, attaching useful, if sometimes bizarre, examples of how real companies deal with these issues. For example, a valued engineer at one company didn't like working in a cubicle--he needed a quieter space. To keep him happy, his company, Ipsilon Networks, built a roof over his cubicle, and gave him a door with a working doorbell. One can't imagine General Motors or Chase Manhattan Bank going this route, but who knows? This may be the model for 21st-century business, and companies that don't learn it could be doomed to the tar pits of commercial history. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
A hotbed of activity for far-sighted thinkers and determined doers, the high technology industry has given rise to a pioneering group of entrepreneurs and executives which is not only behind today's most innovative technological advances, but at the forefront of a dynamic new movement in business. Armed with groundbreaking management philosophies and practices, the members of this visionary group are changing the way corporate structures are modeled and altering conventional conceptions of how companies should be run. Having helped their own organizations survive and thrive in a highly competitive, pressure-filled arena, they offer invaluable lessons for executives and managers in all industries. Now, in Silicon Gold Rush, their inspirational stories are told and their strategies for success revealed.Customer Reviews:
Not relevant with all the hypes -- too general.......2004-01-04
Good selections for books on the Valley I think is "Accidental Empires" by Cringely.
A Couple Years Later, This Is Irrelevant.......2001-02-17
This books still has value for anyone wanting to know some historical background from the times of "irrational exhuberance" but the changes in business priorities that have taken place since this book was written have doomed it to irrelevance.
Insightful!.......2001-02-17
There are some valuable nuggets in this one.......2000-02-25
OK Karen Southwick seems to be using her friends (just look at the back of High Noon to find the same names she cites as experts in this book).
She cites the success of companies such as Cisco, 3Com and PeopleSoft, HP,Intel and Yahoo! There is a lot to learn from these masters (even if it is nothing more than no-one has the whole answer) and Southwick takes us on a journey from start-up, through to marketing (mind she she calls it)and to prospecting. The graphs at the end of her book even show you profiles of the qualities CEOs need to have at various stages of their careers.
I like this book because it has great quotes, e.g. Differentiating your product from others is more important than having the better product, it covers a vast range of topics, it intergrates well with other material (e.g. the work of Geoffrey Moore) and it offers a number of warnings.
Well worth having a good look at
Let me catch my breath.......2000-02-20
The work seems primarily descriptive, rather than prescriptive, making it ironically backward-looking, and already dated.
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After the gold rush: Silicon Valley vendor rebuilds by diversifying customer base: Apple Custom Vending Services in San Jose, Calif. rode the tech boom ... An article from: Automatic Merchandiser
Elliot Maras Manufacturer: Cygnus Business Media ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B00082G8P6 Release Date: 2005-08-01 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Automatic Merchandiser, published by Cygnus Business Media on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 2271 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Silicon Gold Rush: The Next Generation of High-Tech Stars Rewrites the Rules (Unabridged)
Karen Southwick Manufacturer: audible.com ProductGroup: Book Binding: Audio Download ASIN: B000K2VB38 |
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Silicon Gold Rush : The Next Genreation of high-Tech Stars Rewrites the Rules of
Karen Southwick Manufacturer: John Wiley and Sons ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000O5XQMK |
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