Summary

"Jablonsky and Barsky have finally revealed the 'secrets' locked within those scary looking financial reports. Their innovative models proved to be a quick and relatively easy method of realizing financial information that every manager should know, and how to turn this into a plan of action." --Charles Deierlein Manager, Electric Engineering/Quality Assurance Con Edison.

"The Manager's Guide to Financial Statement Analysis provides a comprehensive guide to understanding the language of financial information. Thus, it provides the manager with the practical tools necessary for effective communication in today's business forum." --Thomas A. Roskoski Director, Financial Reengineering Merck & Co., Inc.

"It remains an enduring truth that members of the management team need an understanding of the financial statements and the expectations of the capital markets in order to develop and implement their firm's business strategy. The Manager's Guide to Financial Statement Analysis is an excellent resource for managers who wish to acquire or strengthen their knowledge of financial matters so they can contribute more value to the management team." --J. James Lewis Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Financial Executives Research Foundation, Inc.

Every day managers are flooded with financial information from an overwhelming number of sources--company reports, the financial press, and the World Wide Web. While the language of financial statements may sound like a foreign tongue to you, you know you can't ignore it.

To understand how to use financial information to improve the performance of your company, you need a resource that emphasizes how financial statements can be used to support meaningful management communications. The Manager's Guide to Financial Statement Analysis is the only book on this subject that puts technical issues on the side and focuses on what you need to know to be an effective participant in business communications. This book presents a framework that helps managers see how business strategy is linked to shareholder accountability through the firm's financial statements, without getting caught in the trap of explaining how financial statements are prepared according to technical accounting rules and regulations. The emphasis of this book is on how you, as a manager, can use financial information to improve the performance of your firm, rather than simply learning how to keep score!

Using financial data from Wal-Mart, Inc. for a ten-year period and case studies of other high-profile firms, this book presents business strategy models that demonstrate how financial information can be used to tell a story about a company's business operations. The Manager's Guide to Financial Statement Analysis is written in a language you can understand --the language of business as spoken by managers, not accountants or financial analysts. This book will give you the tools you need to unleash the full communication potential of your company's financial information, make you a better manager, and make your company more competitive.

Choice Review

Jablonsky (The Management Communications Group) and Barsky (Villanova Univ.) focus on the interpretation and managerial impact of financial data. The volume is divided into two sections: "Financial Statements and Business Strategy" and "Market Valuation and Business Strategy." Emphasizing the relationship between a company's market performance and its financial statements, the authors, in 12 easy-to-read chapters, apply the traditional principles and practices of financial analysis to the 1990 and 2000 financial statements of Wal-Mart. Topics covered include the analysis of current operating position, debt and equity relationships, profitability and margin management, current and long-term asset management, long-term investment, debt management, market valuation, and present and future value computations. Excellent illustrative materials enhance the succinct explanations. Four appendixes provide financial analyses of Dell Computer Corporation, Pfizer, Inc., and Cisco Systems and a brief introduction to the methodology of case studies. Although oriented toward the management profession, this book would be an excellent reference source for undergraduate students. See also Jack Sand's Accounting for Business: What the Numbers Mean and How to Use Them (CH, June'01), which provides an introduction to the accounting theory and procedures that form the basis of financial analysis. Recommended for lower-division undergraduate through professional collections. S. R. Kahn University of Cincinnati