Management Lessons of Premium Conglomerates
Much of the debate about the value of highly diversified companies, or conglomerates, centers on theoretical views of diversification, risk, and investor portfolio profiles. In an effort to examine the issue of conglomerate performance in a more pragmatic and action-oriented way, The Boston Consulting Group studied the market performance of conglomerates during the 10-year period from 1988 to 1997.
Content: Article | Author: Lawrence Shulman | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Finance, Management
Business Analysis and Valuation Model
This software enables users to download financial statements for a company, standardize them to a common format, make any needed adjustments to the company’s accounting, and make assumptions about the company’s future performance. The model then provides financial ratios for the company, with benchmarks for the U.S. economy, company pro forma financial statements, and a company valuation using several standard valuation techniques.
Editor’s Note: read … [ Read more ]
Content: Online Resource | Authors: Arleen Ahearn, Jonathan Barnett, Krishna Palepu, Paul Healy | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subject: Finance
Why Harvard Is Bad for Wall Street
The bright young things from Harvard Business School are making their way to Wall Street in droves. Some 26 percent of the HBS class of 2004 took stock-market related jobs, up from 23 percent of the class of 2003. I guess that means it’s time to sell.
Content: Article | Author: Daniel Gross | Source: Slate | Subjects: Finance, MBA Related | Industry: Finance / Banking
The value of hedging revisited…
Maybe hediging is not all that it is cracked up to be. That is the conclusion of “Does Hedging with Derivatives reduce the Market Risk Exposure” by Bali, Hume, and Martell. They find that hedging, at least as it is currently being done, may not add to firm value.
Content: Article | Author: James Mahar Jr. | Source: FinanceProfessor.com | Subject: Finance
Rethinking Activity-Based Costing
Activity-based accounting looks great in the classroom, but too often fails in the field. In this Harvard Business Review excerpt, HBS professor Robert S. Kaplan along with Steven R. Anderson suggest a way around the obstacles.
Content: Article | Authors: Robert S. Kaplan, Steven R. Anderson | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Accounting, Finance
Internal Rate of Return: A Cautionary Tale
Tempted by a project with high internal rates of return? Better check those interim cash flows again.
Content: Article | Authors: John C. Kelleher, Justin J. MacCormack | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Finance, Management
Damodaran Online
Professor Damodaran of NYU’s Stern School of Business has put together this immensely useful site for finance students and professionals. It contains lots of material, including lecture notes, spreadsheets, datasets, books (descriptions, manuscripts, problem solutions, etc.) and webcasts for the areas of Corporate Finance, Investment, and Valuation.
Content: Online Resource | Author: Aswath Damodaran | Subjects: Finance, Free Stuff / Tools
Corporate Finance Spreadsheets
Kerry Back, Vernon W. and Marion K. Piper Professor of Financial Economics of the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis provides this collection of useful spreadsheet downloads. Includes:
– Time Value of Money
– Lease or Buy?
– NPV and IRR Rules
– Inflation and the Real Interest Rate
– Brealey & Myer’s IMC Guano Project
… [ Read more ]
Content: Online Resource | Author: Kerry Back | Subjects: Finance, Free Stuff / Tools
Activity-Based Costing in the Info Age, Part I
Despite the fact that it is over 75 years old, most companies still use standard cost systems both to value inventory for financial statement purposes and for many other management purposes as well. While it has some advantages for financial statement purposes (simplicity, consistency, well understood by auditors), it is, at best, meaningless and, at worst, misleading as a tool to assist in making effective … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Author: James D. Tarr | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: Accounting, Finance
Profit-Sharing and 401(k) Reality Check
Purchasing Cards’ New Velocity
Companies are enjoying growing benefits from their p-cards, thanks to better technology and carefully designed programs.
Content: Article | Author: Karen M. Kroll | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subject: Finance
Sizing Up World-Class Procurement
Beyond Budgeting: How Managers Can Break Free from the Annual Performance Trap
This concise and cogent management study focuses on reforming the traditional annual budgeting process. The authors, both experienced consultants, argue persuasively that the “fixed-performance contract” mode of conventional budgeting increases costs and delays and centralizes decision-making to the point of reduced flexibility and adaptability. In the current rapidly changing business environment (particularly international business), where there’s less of a demand for strictly hierarchical models of … [ Read more ]
Content: Book | Authors: Jeremy Hope, Robin Fraser | Subjects: Finance, Management
Banking on International Financial Stability
In their search for the root causes of international financial meltdowns, politicians and bureaucrats have been looking in the wrong places. The best defense against economic crises is good, solid banks.
Content: Article | Author: Paul Wachtel | Source: STERNbusiness (NYU) | Subjects: Economics, Finance | Industry: Finance / Banking
Rethinking Options
The State of Today’s Finance Organizations (focus on IT)
Charting the IPO Revival
Henrik Ibsen
Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It buys you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.
Content: Quotation | Source: Business 2.0 | Subject: Money
Foolproof Compliance For Your IT Systems
Sarbanes-Oxley’s requirement that external auditors test key controls in financial systems makes the finance-IT relationship more important than ever before.
Content: Article | Author: Eric Krell | Source: Business Finance Magazine | Subjects: Finance, IT / Technology / E-Business
Corporate Governance Standards in the United States for Foreign Private Issuers
On July 30, 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“Act”) came into force. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) subsequently issued several rules and regulations under the Act. In addition, at the urging of the SEC, the major US exchanges and trading markets adopted further significant corporate governance reforms for listed companies.
This article addresses the rules and regulations that have been issued or proposed. … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Adriaan Grijns, Eduardo Vidal | Source: BetterManagement.com | Subjects: Finance, Legal