Managing By The Numbers: A Commonsense Guide To Understanding And Using Your Company's Financials - Softcover

Kremer, Chuck; Rizzuto, Ron; Case, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0738202568 ISBN 13: 9780738202563

Publisher: Basic Books, 2000

Synopsis

The essential guide to understanding financial reports, for entrepreneurs, managers, and business owners
Do you get complete financial reports for your business at least once a month?
Do you understand what all those numbers mean?
Do you use the information in those reports to help you make smart decisions about your business?
If you answer "no" to any or all of these questions, then turn to Managing by the Numbers, a highly practical and accessible antidote to financial anxiety. Chuck Kremer, Ron Rizzuto, and John Case show you how to manage the three bottom lines of business financial performance -- net profit, operating cash flow, and return on assets -- and roll them into the "Financial Scoreboard" to see the big picture at a glance. Offering step-by-step examples and an extensive glossary of key terms and concepts, Managing by the Numbers is a commonsense guide to making those numbers work for you -- to monitor and measure performance, make smart decisions, and drive long-term growth. It is an essential resource for anyone eager to improve their mastery of the financial side of running a business.

About this title

Review

Chuck Kremer, Ron Rizzuto, and John F. Case believe "50 percent of small-company owners and managers don't get complete, timely information about their business's financial performance" and "90 percent don't really understand or use the information they do get." Kremer, a business-literacy consultant, Rizzuto, a university finance professor, and Case, a business journalist, further contend that such data and their proper application are critical to the successful operation of any small business. That's why they've assembled Managing by the Numbers as a self-help guide to the ins and outs of corporate finance. In the first section, they show how to decipher three major reports that everyone should review monthly (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow). In the second, they discuss how resultant figures tie in to "three bottom lines of business" (net profit, operating cash flow, return on assets) that can be examined collectively. And in the third, they explain ways that stimuli for each can be optimized to achieve overall business goals. The combination allows you to "translate your financial understanding into better financial performance," the authors conclude. While much of the material may seem intimidating, it is presented clearly and could indeed provide an edge in today's hypercompetitive business environment. --Howard Rothman

About the Author

Chuck Kremer, CPA, is Senior Business-Literacy Consultant for Boulder-based Educational Discoveries. An originator of "The Financial Game for Decision Making," he teaches financial-literacy courses to managers and executives around the country.
Ron Rizzuto, PhD, is a professor of finance at the University of Denver, where he co-founded the entrepreneurship program at the Daniels College of Business.
John Case is executive editor of the newsletter division at Harvard Business School Publishing. A former senior editor and senior writer for Inc. magazine, he is the author of numerous feature stories and several books on entrepreneurship and open-book management.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0738202568
• ISBN 13: 9780738202563
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 198