Product Description

Companies expect managers to use financial data to allocate resources and run their departments. But many managers can’t read a balance sheet, wouldn’t recognize a liquidity ratio, and don’t know how to calculate return on investment. Worse, they don’t have any idea where the numbers come from or how reliable they really are.

In Financial Intelligence, Karen Berman and Joe Knight teach the basics of finance—but with a twist. Financial reporting, they argue, is as much art as science. Since nobody can quantify everything, accountants always rely on estimates, assumptions, and judgment calls. Savvy managers need to know how those sources of possible bias can affect the financials—and they need to know that sometimes the numbers can be challenged.

While providing the foundation for a deep understanding of the financial side of business, the book also arms managers with practical strategies for improving their companies’ performance—strategies such as “managing the balance sheet” that are well understood by financial professionals but rarely shared with their nonfinancial colleagues.

Accessible, jargon-free, and filled with entertaining stories of real companies, Financial Intelligence will help nonfinancial managers be smarter and more confident in their everyday work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49724 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

About the Author
Karen Berman and Joe Knight are the owners of the Los Angeles–based Business Literacy Institute and have trained tens of thousands of managers at many leading organizations. Coauthor John Case has written several popular books on management.

Customer Reviews

Great stuff
I've read a few of these types of books now (i.e. Finance for Managers), and this is is by far the most clear and concise book that I've come across. It's the perfect introductory book that's well organized in a way that spur future studies on particular topics. I'm mandating that all managers in my company read this book.