Cost Accounting (12th Edition) (Charles T Horngren Series in Accounting)

Book Description

Horngren’s Cost Accounting defined the cost accounting market and continues to innovate today by consistently integrating the most current practice and theory. This acclaimed, number one market-leading book embraces the basic theme of âdifferent costs for different purposes.â It reaches beyond cost accounting procedures to consider concepts, analyses, and management. This latest edition of Cost Accounting incorporates the latest research and most up-to-date thinking into all relevant chapters. Professional issues related to Management Accounting and Management Accountants are emphasized. Chapter topics cover the accountant's role in the organization to performance measurement, compensation, and multinational considerations. For future accountants who want to enhance their understanding of–and ability to–solve cost accounting problems.

Customer Reviews:

Not impressed.......2007-10-03

I am not sure whether my negative perception of this book arises more from my disliking the book or the subject matter, but I felt like I had trouble learning from it as well as I have from other textbooks. I generally rely on the text to clarify anything I missed from a professor's lecture, but this one was not that helpful for me. I'm sure this is related to the fact that I am absolutely horrible at accounting, but I was hoping that the textbook could save me and teach me whatever I was missing in class... no such luck!

Good starting book for Managerial Accounting.......2007-02-26

Clearly written. Although it assumes some basic knowledge about accounting, the writing technique is such that there is very little background knowledge that you have to go refresh yourself with in order to make sense of the new information. For a novice at accounting like me, this was easy to understand, with good examples and illustrations.

It is really useful in real business world!!.......2006-11-16

I am a MBA candidate in US and will return to Japan next year.
My background is engineer in Japanese manufacturing company.
Even now, this textbook teaches us powerful tools and especially in factory accounting. The knowledge for budgeting and how to evaluate it will help me in the future.
I will bring this book back to Japan and try to use it in the real world!!

Excellent book.......2006-10-11

The writing may not be perfect, but it's still a great textbook, probably the best you can find.

After all, there is a reason that so many colleges use this book. You will learn a great deal whether you use this book for a class or for your own study.

Poorly written.......2006-02-15

This is a poorly written textbook; rambling and fragmented information is presented on a piecemeal basis rather than in a clear, concise and well-organized manner. Important information belonging to one subject-matter chapter, is often presented as "aside" information in other chapters on wholly different subjects. This textbook appears to have been written by an author who forgot to take his ADHD medication. This "substandard" quality has become common place with this particular publishing company, Prentice Hall, to include its many subsidiaries (Pearson, Thompson, Southwestern, etc.), to the detriment of the education system.

Financial Management: Theory and Practice with Thomson ONE

Average customer rating:

First, they should learn to write sentences!
finance student
Not a good book to learn from
Marcel Douven Netherlands
Dissenting Opinion

Financial Management: Theory and Practice with Thomson ONE
Eugene F. Brigham , and Michael C. Ehrhardt
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

A Guide to Using Thomson ONE - Business School Edition
Study Guide to accompany Financial Management: Theory and Practice

ASIN: 0324259689

Book Description

This text remains the only text in the market that presents a balance of financial theory and applications. The authors maintain the same four goals as with the first edition: helping learners to make good financial decisions, providing a solid text for the introductory MBA course, motivating learners by demonstrating finance is relevant and interesting, and presenting the material clearly.

Customer Reviews:

First, they should learn to write sentences!.......2007-08-22

This book falls into the category of professors who know the material, but just can't communicate it. I can tell it was written on a schedule...sloppy wording, confusing definitions, and unintuitive examples and explanations. This information isn't that tough to understand...poor writing makes it so.

Here's a paragraph defining WACC, p.11.
Financial managers also must make finance decisions relating to how to finance the firm. In particular, what mix of debt and equity should be used, and what specific types of debt and equity should be issued? Also, what percentage of current earnings should be retained and reinvested rather than paid out as dividends? Along with these financing decisions, the general level of interest rates in the economy, the risk of the firm's operations, and stock market investors' overall attitude toward risk determine the rate of return that is required to satisfy a firm's investors. This is a return from investors' perspectives, but it is a cost from the company's point of view. Therefore, it is called the weighted average cost of capital (WACC).

As in the rest of the book, too many words, no directness or clarity.

Don't buy this book for self-study; you'll spend most of your time trying to decipher the obfuscating sentences.

finance student.......2007-07-09

I felt that the book was good. Some of the concepts could have been explained in better detail. I notice that on a lot of the chapters the authors repeated some of the material more than once. Some chapters need more practice problems like in chapter 5. This book explains the basic and fundamental concepts good but does not explained the difficult concepts good. Overall, this book was good.

Not a good book to learn from.......2007-06-01

This book's explanations were poor at best. It utilized undefined terms, and had a weak glossary/index.
Explanations of financial formulas were sorely lacking, and the organization of these formulas so that one could ever find them wasn't even attempted.

Not recommended.

Marcel Douven Netherlands.......2007-04-15

We used this "Brigham" for the course financial management, MBA programm.
The book gives a good overview and analysis of the main issues and is rather easy to understand and pleasant to read. You sould be aware that some issues are seen through the American glasses. Very usefull, I warmly recommend it.

Dissenting Opinion.......2007-02-27

Like many of the other reviewers, this text was required for my MBA program. As intro books go, I think that this book is much more advanced then what many reviewers have indicated.

Plus, my terms are 8 weeks long and this textbook is way, way too long for such a short time period. My school should adopt a textbook that is shorter in length. The book has over 25 long chapters. We barely studied half that before the term came to an end.

I felt that the layout of the text was not great. By this I mean, it would have been very helpful if, like other textbooks, the publishers/authors defined terms and concepts in the margins. Often times, the authors failed to provide clear definitions in the narrative forcing you to go to the glossary.

Next point, the authors present the material in long dense paragraphs which can be a challenge to get through. They need to break things up a bit more and interject more solved problems and examples.

I found this text more "academic" in nature and not something I could use as a reference on the job. I am looking for the practical and not the theory.

Bottomline, I would rather use a textbook that gets to the point faster, has more worked out problems, and is more visually inviting so to speak. For example, I have an old edition of Gitman's "Financial Management" and I like it much better then this textbook. The study guide that goes with Gitman's book is really good as well.

Meanwhile, I am debating whether to keep this text as reference or not.

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

Average customer rating:

Just perfect.
Not great for the beginner
Lacking Full Explanations
Good introductory finance book
Comprehensive text - you get your money's worth

Principles of Corporate Finance + Student CD + Ethics in Finance PowerWeb + Standard and Poor's (McGraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Est)
Richard A Brealey , Stewart C Myers , and Franklin Allen
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
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Analysis for Financial Management + S&P subscription card
Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods and Uses

Accessories:

Schaum's Outline of Financial Management
The Wall Street MBA: Your Personal Crash Course in Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Demystified
Schaum's Quick Guide to Business Formulas: 201 Decision-Making Tools for Business, Finance, and Accounting Students

ASIN: 0073130826

Book Description

Principles of Corporate Finance is the worldwide leading text that describes the theory and practice of corporate finance. Throughout the book the authors show how managers use financial theory to solve practical problems and as a way of learning how to respond to change by showing not just how but why companies and management act as they do. The text is comprehensive, authoritative, and modern and yet the material is presented at a common sense level. The discussions and illustrations are unique due to the depth of detail blended with a distinct sense of humor for which the book is well known and highly regarded. This text is a valued reference for thousands of practicing financial managers. Richard A. Brealey and Stewart C. Myers welcome Franklin Allen as a new coauthor to this Eighth Edition. Sometimes the addition of a new coauthor means that one of the existing authors proposes to take a back seat. That is not the case with this team. Dr. Allen’s addition represents a genuine increase in capacity and brings fresh expertise and ideas to an already tremendously successful textbook and partnership.

Customer Reviews:

Just perfect........2007-09-06

Although I did not pass the exam that I took. The problem was with the exam not the book. This is an excellent book with lot of work done to ensure that the book is perfect.

The presentations available online with this book have a few mistakes.

Not great for the beginner.......2007-07-17

This book is not very clear in its explanations and does not have too many worked examples. Not sure why my MBA school prescribes this. I recommend reading Fundamentals of Corporate Finance Standard Edition by Stephen Ross, Randolph Westerfield.

Lacking Full Explanations.......2007-06-07

This book leaves me with more questions about finance than I have answers. Who do the authors think they are writing for? It surely is not the beginner MBA student. It seems like words are expensive because they do not fully or even partially explain concepts. Finance is difficult but it should not be impossible. I should not have to read and reread to figure out what the heck they are talking about. Maybe they should serve as advisors to this text and let someone who knows how to write actually write the book. These guys may be leaders and brillant but they are poor communicators. I'm not thrilled with my professor either. Is he a cheerleader or a teacher?

Good introductory finance book.......2007-04-11

This is an easy to ready comprehensive introduction to basic finance concepts. I would not recommend it to finance majors but I consider it a good choice for general MBA or other students that do not have a stong quantitative finance background.

Comprehensive text - you get your money's worth.......2007-01-09

I got this book for my Intro to Corp Finance class. The professor was aweful, but the book got me through the class. There are several other finance classes that use the same text, so for once I feel like I'll get my money's worth out of a textbook.

Fundamentals of Financial Management (with Thomson ONE - Business School Edition)

Average customer rating:

Funadmentals of Financial Management
Again not enough info
This book deserves 0 star
Target Market is for undergraduates
Too basic for an MBA class

Fundamentals of Financial Management (with Thomson ONE - Business School Edition)
Eugene F. Brigham , and Joel F. Houston
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

Study Guide for Brigham/Houston's Fundamentals of Financial Management, 11th

ASIN: 0324319800

Book Description

"Brigham/Houston: A Classic, redefined...because a classic never goes out of style." The market leader, Brigham/Houston, continues to grow in reputation and amount of users as the most effective approach for teaching the first undergraduate corporate finance course. The seamless, integrated ancillary package, still painstakingly prepared by the authors, is a hallmark of the Brigham/Houston package which reduces course preparation time for instructors and makes the subject more accessible for learners. New for this edition is the addition of iLrn Finance, an online student assessment and tutorial resource to help improve student performance. Additionally, access to Thomson ONE - Business School Edition, an online financial database that students can use to complete projects or select end of chapter exercises, is included with each new text.

Customer Reviews:

Funadmentals of Financial Management.......2007-09-25

I'm using this book as a part of my master of science and it is pretty good, easy to understand even for non financial people, I hihgly recomend this book

Again not enough info.......2007-03-29

It goes into the questions but does not go into how to solve the problem well enough. Like every other financial book. Just once I wish the authors would realize they cannot skip steps on solving the problems! Instead of giving a COMPLETE answer. How hard is it????

This book deserves 0 star.......2007-02-04

This book is required for my finance class. However, this book doesn't explain the concepts well. For example what the book covered on the chapters have nothing to do with what were asked on the exercises. Students are often left in the dark trying to find themselves to come up with the formula (luckily we have the internet). If you buy this book make sure you have the TI BA II plus calculator. The book ONLY explains how to do most of the problems on THAT particular calculator instead of giving us the formula to use on any other calculator or using spreadsheet. Although there are some chapters that mentioned they will give instructions on how to solve the problems using MS excel but so far only chapter 1 gave us some basic information and rest of the chapters don't show anything (even though they mentioned it). So the words on the book and what you are actually getting don't match. Unless you have a very good instructor who's willing to work without getting help from the book, you are pretty screwed.

This book needs some serious editing (as I said the words and the contents don't match).

Target Market is for undergraduates.......2006-12-30

If interested in an MBA text, you might examine Brigham's Intermediate Financial Management. This Fundamentals text is outstanding for the undergraduate, intro course. JWB

Too basic for an MBA class.......2006-11-21

I got this book as the accompanying textbook to a Financial Management Class. Our class had to study most of the material on its own. As it usually is, the majority of the work is done at home hitting textbooks and figuring out how formulas are derived, which variables go where, and how fundamnetal coefficients (beta, alpha) are calculated.
Well this book is not well suited to acquire a solid foundation in finance without consulting better books or the internet. The result is: one needs much more time than actually necessary to learn the material.
Furthermore there are some statements; for instance "...multinational corporations (MNCs) issue stock in foreign countries..."; well I knew that, too, prior to this class. But why doesn't this book a little bit better explain why MNCs actually do this? There are several of such unexplained statements in the book. I am very disappointed.
Even though this book is really just about the fundamentals, it should have much better caught those fundamentals. I think I have to go to the Stanford, Harvard, or MIT MBA syllabi to find a good financial management book which goes a bit more in depth.
This book is priced by weight not by content! Definitely not worth the ~$160.

Essentials of Corporate Finance (Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate)

Average customer rating:

Great!
Finance Textbook
Not sure why someone rated it poorly
Finance Textbook
Good for a textbook

Essentials of Corporate Finance (Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate)
Stephen A. Ross , Randolph W Westerfield , and Bradford D Jordan
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

Corporate Finance Demystified

ASIN: 0072946733

Book Description

Essentials of Corporate Finance, 5/e by Ross, Westerfield, and Jordan is written to convey the most important concepts and principles of corporate finance at a level that is approachable for a wide audience. The authors retain their modern approach to finance, but have distilled the subject down to the essential topics in 18 chapters. They believe that understanding the “why” is just as important, if not more so, than understanding the “how,” especially in an introductory course. Three basic themes emerge as their central focus: 1. An emphasis on intuition—separate and explain the principles at work on a common sense, intuitive level before launching into specifics. Underlying ideas are discussed first in general terms, then followed by specific examples that illustrate in more concrete terms how a financial manager might proceed in a given situation. 2. A unified valuation approach—Net Present Value is treated as the basic concept underlying corporate finance. Every subject the authors cover is firmly rooted in valuation, and care is taken to explain how decisions have valuation effects. 3. A managerial focus—Students learn that financial management concerns management. The role of financial manager as decision maker is emphasized and they stress the need for managerial input and judgment.

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2007-07-26

I think the book does a good job of simplifying finance for those of us who are beginners in the field. They give clear, step-by-step examples so that it is easy to understand

Finance Textbook.......2007-07-23

The textbook's price was competitive, it was delivered in a timely manner as promised and in mint condition as promised.
I enjoyed doing business with this supplier.

Not sure why someone rated it poorly.......2007-06-02

I'm an MBA student with quite a number of courses finished. I'm over half way through the finance course that uses this book and have found it to be written very well. The example problems are great, and the explanations are thorough. Our professor did make available the answers to the questions at the back of the book and used the powerpoints developed by the author. All in all the only drawback I could find was cost (as usual with college texts). As a side note, several students did use the 4th edition in our class with the permission of the instructor and did just fine.

Finance Textbook.......2007-02-11

The description of the textbook on the web was confusing and resulted in the buying the wrong book; but the return policy and credit correction worked very well;

Good for a textbook.......2007-01-03

I had to buy this book and use it for Finance class. It was helpful and used real world examples.

Business Analysis and Valuation: Using Financial Statements, Text and Cases

Average customer rating:

Case study is worth reading...
good case study
Useful if cumbersome
Required Text
Excellent Capstone Book

Business Analysis and Valuation: Using Financial Statements, Text and Cases
Krishna G. Palepu , Paul M. Healy , and Victor L Bernard
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Investments
The New Corporate Finance

ASIN: 0324118945

Book Description

Financial statements are the basis for a wide range of business analysis. Managers, securities analysts, bankers and consultants all use them to make business decisions. There is strong demand among business students for course materials that provide a framework for using financial statement data in a variety of business analysis and valuation contexts.

Customer Reviews:

Case study is worth reading..........2007-04-21

First part of this book is about reading financial statements. If you already know the statements, you don't need to read the first part. However, even if you can read the statements, the second part, case study, will be helpful to your real analysis.

good case study.......2006-04-30

I found the chapters are not very in detail. I was using it as the textbook and the lecture notes are way better. I read the book at the begginning but stopped in the middle as it doesn't really help. However, the end of chapter case studies are pretty good.

Useful if cumbersome.......2002-12-16

This review applies to the edition WITH CASES. This isn't recommended for anyone who is just starting out with choosing investments. Beginners might be better off with a more general overview of financial statement analysis (FSA) like Higgins' "Analysis of Financial Statements" or Fraser and Omriston's "Understanding Financial Statements".

This was one of two textbooks used in a financial statement analysis course I took for my MBA. Most chapters are down-to-earth and as a whole the book is well-written.

The other text we used was Penman's "Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation" which was also a great resource as far as gaining a basic understanding of the mechanics of financial statements and how to build a valuation model.

I contrast the two books because while Penman provides a run-down of several different models analysts can use (and does a good job of arguing for the Residual Income Model of valuation model as being the best), Palepu delves into the implications of companies' choices of accounting methods and provides more insight into what different kinds of businesses should look like in terms of their financial statements.

The cases at the end of each chapter add a lot of value to the text because they get students to focus on the specific issues detailed in each chapter. By picking apart different companies' financial statements we learned to use financial statements to assess the success or failure of companies' efforts to carry out their business strategies.

I rate it "Good - 4 stars"

Required Text.......2002-09-17

This is a required text at my school, but after having read the first 5 chapters there is almost nothing of value that I have read. I have spoken to several people that have used this text for the class in prior semesters and they told me that they had stopped reading it after the first several chapters also.

Excellent Capstone Book.......2000-10-12

This book is an excellent description of all the elements that would go into reviewing a potential investment opportunity. It is not a detailed book in one category, such as financial accounting, but it ties business strategy analysis, financial analysis, forecasting analysis, and valuation analysis together. Most other books focus on one area and don't tie all of these together well. This one takes you down the path to evaluating the opportunity to its fullest. It is an excellent capstone book after you have sifted through the details of strategy, finance, and accounting.

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition

Average customer rating:

Very fast, superve conditions
Difficult to use, disorganized
Thanks you
new bk delivered within a week
This is a review of only the CD - i.e., Excel model

Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fourth Edition
McKinsey & Company Inc. , Tim Koller , Marc Goedhart , and David Wessels
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

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Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies (Wiley Finance)
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies (Wiley Finance)

ASIN: 0471702188

Book Description

Hailed by financial professionals worldwide as the single best guide of its kind, Valuation, Fourth Edition with CD-ROM combines is thoroughly revised and expanded to reflect business conditions in today’s volatile global economy. Valuation provides up-to-date insights and practical advice on how to create, manage, and measure an organization’s value. Along with all-new case studies that illustrate how valuation techniques and principles are applied in real-world situations, this comprehensive guide has been updated to reflect the events of the Internet bubble and its effect on stock markets, new developments in academic finance, changes in accounting rules (both U. S. and IFRS), and an enhanced global perspective. This package contains a solid framework that managers at all levels, investors, and students have come to trust.

Customer Reviews:

Very fast, superve conditions.......2007-06-08

I strickly recommend this shop: just 10 days to Barcelona and new!

Difficult to use, disorganized.......2007-04-12

I used this book for an MBA finance class but I am not keeping it as a reference. I felt it was convoluted and badly organized. It was difficult to look up subjects using the index when you wanted to just crack the book and find a formula or look for something specific. Since that's what I would do if I kept the book as a reference, the value for me is not there. I'm looking for a different book that is better organized and easier to understand for my reference book.

Thanks you.......2007-02-12

I got the book right away and it is still in perfect condition. I am absolutely satify with market order. Thanks you so much.

new bk delivered within a week.......2007-02-11

the shipping fee is free and i got the bk within a week. Most importantly, it's a new bk which price is nearly half of the original price in the bookstore!! awesome!

This is a review of only the CD - i.e., Excel model.......2006-03-28

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.

I gave the CD product 4 stars, instead of 5 stars, because I felt that:

1) The PDF instructional manual on using the model is woefully inadequate.
2) There were a few serious errors in the model.
3) The model took the easy way out on a lot of difficult valuation items.

1. The PDF manual is woefully inadequate. Reading it, you think the model is self-explanatory, but it really isn't. You have to really study the numbers to understand what assumptions the model wants you to make. In this regard, the book is marginally helpful, the examples in the book is slightly more helpful. In many cases, I had to turn to other valuation texts to figure out a few things.

2. The model is for the most part, error-free. But I did catch two calculation errors that I will share, so that others can avoid the pain. First, in the Forecast Drivers tab, there is a data row called Capex. It looks back at the optional Capital Expenditure line as an off-balance sheet item in 'Historical Data.' This is inconsistent with the book's data driven approach and specification that CapEx = change in Net PPE + Depreciation. You may want to recorrect the Capex formula to specify this. Why the model asks us to manually specify the Capital Expenditures in Historical Data, I have no idea.

Another error I saw is in the Results tab. In the Ratios section, there is one called 'Enterprise value / EBITA'. If you look at the formula, it points to EBIT. You need to correct this by having it point to Reported EBITA.

3. I think the model takes the easy way out on a lot of the most difficult items. For example, the book advocates treatment of R&D as a capitalized asset, and yet the model excludes this entirely. The book advocates dealing with the market value of debt, but the model just incorporates the book value of debt. The model leaves as an entry item the value of the lease as a balance sheet item, when it you could easily just as well incorporate extensions to model this. This is the same for options, convertible debt, customer receivables, unutilized/discontinued assets, etc.

Basically, the book is aggressive in advocating a firm estimation of operational value, NOA value, and Debt/DE claims, but the model is much less ambitious.

This does not make the model useless. It's a great data-driven model. It just requires the user to build sophisticated extensions to deal with the most complicated parts. At the same time, this is no cheap model. They are probably making lots of money on it. I would have expected the folks at McKinsey to provide extensions to handle the most complicated aspects of valuation, in addition to the core items.

Cost Management: Measuring, Monitoring, and Motivating Performance (Management Accounting)

Average customer rating:

Cost Management: Measuring, Monitoring, and Motivating Performance (Management Accounting)
Leslie G. Eldenburg , and Susan K. Wolcott
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

Management Science: The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets
Cost Management, Problem Solving Guide: Measuring, Monitoring, and Motivating Performance
The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets: Management Science, Spreadsheet Engineering, and Modeling Craft

ASIN: 0471205494

Book Description

Cost Management" was written in response to changes in the global business environment. Unbridled access to information and intense competition has meant that cost accounting has become an increasingly important tool for managers and accountants alike. Most textbooks focus on content knowledge and then expect students to 'magically' demonstrate skills such as decision-making and critical thinking. "Cost Management" better prepares students for professional success by bridging the gaps between Knowledge, Skills and Abilities. Many students fail to recognize the assumptions, limitations, behavioral implications and qualitative factors that influence managerial decision-making. The dynamic, new author team focuses on cost accounting methods, techniques and the quality of cost accounting information used for decision-making to deliver a thoroughly modern treatment of cost accounting topics.

The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action

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The Balanced Scorecard - translating strategy into action
they are the ones
Are you adding or destroying value ? - Find it out with The Balanced Score Card
Aligning four key business areas to your vision and strategy
Effective for top down planning

The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action
Robert S. Kaplan , and David P. Norton
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business

ASIN: 0875846513

Book Description

Here is the book-by the recognized architects of the Balanced Scorecard--that shows how managers can use this revolutionary tool to mobilize their people to fulfill the company's mission. More than just a measurement system, the Balanced Scorecard is a management system that can channel the energies, abilities, and specific knowledge held by people throughout the organization toward achieving long-term strategic goals.

Kaplan and Norton demonstrate how senior executives in industries such as banking, oil, insurance, and retailing are using the Balanced Scorecard both to guide current performance and to target future performance. They show how to use measures in four categories-financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth-to align individual, organizational, and cross-departmental initiatives and to identify entirely new processes for meeting customer and shareholder objectives.

The authors also reveal how to use the Balanced Scorecard as a robust learning system for testing, gaining feedback on, and updating the organization's strategy. Finally, they walk through the steps that managers in any company can use to build their own Balanced Scorecard.

The Balanced Scorecard provides the management system for companies to invest in the long term-in customers, in employees, in new product development, and in systems-rather than managing the bottom line to pump up short-term earnings. It will change the way you measure and manage your business.

Customer Reviews:

The Balanced Scorecard - translating strategy into action.......2007-10-06

The order process was quick and easy,the information updates on status of delivery were accurate, the book arrived before ETA, and it was in excellent condition.

Thank you for a great transaction.

Now I just have to read it!!!
Regards

Breed Lewis

they are the ones.......2007-04-09

They invented it and there's no way to plan a BSC without knowing where it came from.

You don't notice that it's been 10 years since it was written.

Are you adding or destroying value ? - Find it out with The Balanced Score Card.......2006-07-13

The financial performance of an organization is essential for its success. Even non-profit organizations must deal in a sensible way with funds they receive.

In 1992, an article by Robert Kaplan and David Norton entitled "The Balanced Scorecard - Measures that Drive Performance" in the Harvard Business Review caused a lot of attention for their method, and led to their business bestseller, "The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action", published in 1996.

In this book Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton develop and describe the Balanced Score Card, a multidimensional approach to measuring corporate performance that incorporates both financial and non-financial factors.

The Balanced Score Card method of Kaplan and Norton is a strategic approach and performance management system that enables organizations to translate a company's vision and strategy into implementation, working from 4 perspectives:
1. financial perspective,
2. customer perspective,
3. business process perspective,
4. learning and growth perspective.

- Financial perspective: Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and accurate funding data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever necessary to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized and automated. But the point is that the current emphasis on financials leads to the "unbalanced" situation with regard to other perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.

- Customer perspective: recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good. In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analyzed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.

- Business Process perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be carefully designed by those who know these processes most intimately. In addition to the strategic management process, two kinds of business processes may be identified: a) mission-oriented processes, and b) support processes. Mission-oriented processes are the special functions of government offices, and many unique problems are encountered in these processes. The support processes are more repetitive in nature, and hence easier to measure and benchmark using generic metrics.

- Learning and Growth perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organization, people are the main resource. In the current climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to be in a continuous learning mode. Government agencies often find themselves unable to hire new technical workers and at the same time is showing a decline in training of existing employees. Kaplan and Norton emphasize that 'learning' is more than 'training'; it also includes things like mentors and tutors within the organization, as well as that ease of communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it is needed. It also includes technological tools such as an Intranet.

The integration of these four perspectives into a graphical appealing picture have made the Balanced Scorecard method a very successful methodology within the Value Based Management philosophy.

In addition to this book you may want to consider the following books on the subject:
- Robert S. Kaplan. Alignment: Using the Balanced Scorecard to Create Corporate Synergies.
- Paul R. Niven. Balanced ScoreCard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results.
- Paul R. Niven. Balanced ScoreCard Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies.
- Nils-Göran Olve. Performance Drivers: A Practical Guide to Using the Balanced Scorecard.
- Robert S. Kaplan. The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment.
- Robert S. Kaplan. Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes.
- Robert S. Kaplan. Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work.
- Robert S. Kaplan. The Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance.

Aligning four key business areas to your vision and strategy.......2006-01-11

This book has become a classic in the field of business management. The 'balanced scorecard' has surely been referenced enough to include it in the dictionary. Robert Kaplan is the Arthur Lowes Dickson Professor of Accounting at Harvard Business School. His co-author David Norton is the president of Renaissance Solutions, Inc.

This book tackles gracefully a quite common theme these days: how to turn your beautiful and inspired vision into its corresponding actions throughout your company.

Most companies act on short-term financial reward. In the Balanced Scorecard, actions and rewards are based on the additional aspects of employee learning and growth, internal business processes and customer knowledge. When these are all in alignment, the financial future is rosy.

This book reminded me of the aphorism, "What you measure is what you get." Once you learn what to measure, you experiment with different perfomance drivers.

Five Stars

Effective for top down planning.......2005-10-31

The balanced scorecard approach is a very effective tool for top-down planning initiatives. The method will ensure that any business unit initiative is cross-checked with the broader corporate goals. The book provides an easy-to-understand yet detailed how-to guide to strategy planning.
Frank Loomans

Fundamentals of Financial Management, Concise Edition (with Thomson ONE - Business School Edition)

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Excellent textbook for gaining an understanding of Finance
Great Service
fundamentals of financial management
great book
pc6

Fundamentals of Financial Management, Concise Edition (with Thomson ONE - Business School Edition)
Eugene F. Brigham , and Joel F. Houston
Manufacturer: South-Western College Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

Study Guide for Brigham/Houston's Fundamentals of Financial Management, Concise Edition, 5th

ASIN: 0324319835

Book Description

"Brigham/Houston: A Classic, redefined...because a classic never goes out of style." The market leader, Brigham/Houston, continues to grow in reputation and amount of users as the most effective approach for teaching the first undergraduate corporate finance course. This Concise version of the extremely successful, Brigham/Houston-Fundamentals of Financial Management, contains the same level of topical rigor while also reflecting the latest in theory, research, real-world examples, and use of technology as Fundamentals. The seamless, integrated ancillary package, still painstakingly prepared by the authors, is a hallmark of the Brigham/Houston package which reduces course preparation time for instructors and makes the subject more accessible for learners. New for this edition is the addition of iLrn Finance, an online student assessment and tutorial resource to help improve student performance. Additionally, access to Thomson ONE - Business School Edition, an online financial database that students can use to complete projects or select end of chapter exercises, is included with each new text.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent textbook for gaining an understanding of Finance.......2007-03-10

This text book is an excellent resource for understanding Financial Management. It was a required text in my MBA program and the book is easy to go through on your own. There are exercises, or self tests, at the end of each section in the chapters, as well as many types of problems and self test questions at the end of the chapters.

We had a mediocre teacher in my MBA program, so going through the text was imperative. The authors do a great job breaking down concepts and some of the examples at end of chapter sections have the answers.

I comes with a supplemental booklet to further help undertand the "Time Value of Money" which, according to the authors, is a difficult concept.

One big plus for this text is that it shows you how to figure out the problems using formulas, using financial caluclators, and using an Excel spreadsheet.

I highly recommend doing the examples and problems in the book, and ordering the study guide. The study guide has additional examples and problems to work through and is the perfect supplement.

This is one text I am going to keep!

Great Service.......2006-12-21

The book is in an excellent condition, the package was terrific, well wrapped against rain or snow. Ryan did a great job packing and shipping the item. I received it on the 2nd business day after placing the order. I am very happy with the service.

fundamentals of financial management.......2006-11-06

It was in great condition but it just took too long for what I pay for the shipping but overall the item was just right brand new great.Needs to improve their shipping only two thumbs up!!

great book.......2006-09-26

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

pc6.......1999-02-25

capital structur

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