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Helpful orientation for financial accounting in the first section. The rest was interesting business cases that helped to reinforce concepts, but a lot of the learning just needs to be hammered in. Improved from a 20% to a 60% on the quiz, but obviously still bad. Will supplement with youtube videos.
Good basic book on finance, will help you understand basic, and important, principles of financial management.
Great intro for anyone in business who doesn't have a finance background. And if you do, there are still many gems here.
Finance is pretty simple! This book is the bible to use it in order to manage your business. Great book.
The "HBR Guide to" series is always reliable in content, applicability and (usually) ease of understanding for the non-expert. Finance Basics is also in that vein: Content is good; basic; clear, etc. However I'm going with 3 stars vs. 4 because as a non-finance guy (I get the numbers, I get the need, I get the value) the overall concepts and use-case applications could have been presented a little more explicitly to account for a more diversified learning-style reader audience.I see this one as
Somewhat does what it says: Decoding the jargons. Till preparing budgets it was crisp. After that, it is just a quick read with not much to learn.
While providing some good basics, the reading is jumpy and repetitive as it is simply a compilation of different HBR publications. In fact, two chapters (one right after the other) give contradictory reads on ROI thinking, which is hardly helpful for someone trying to learn the basics. Good to keep as a basic resource.
Required ReadingAlthough this book was required reading I really enjoyed it. The book not only explained the basic terms and tools of business, but as the reader I was able to read it and not get the textbook type of voice, but something that told more of a story interwoven with real life cases.
The initial chapters are perhaps too verbose in introducing what are really very simple calculations. Perhaps a summary chapter with the calculations, and dedicated sections describing the concepts and context in a more direct manner would improve this book as a basic reference. The final chapters provided more valuable insight on what the financial statements miss, and the qualitative aspects of a business’ health.Some sections are in need of update to accounts for today’s market constraints. F...
Good high level overview of corporate finance. If you're not looking to go deep on the subject this would be a good resource, but there are other books out there that contain much more information without taking too much more of your time.
Good for what it was - a quick ‘for dummies’ primer on the basics of business finance.I feel empowered and enriched by having spent the hour or so it took to read it. I feel like I understand much better how my managers are seeing the company I work for and how their goals and objectives are framed.
This book covers all financial basics and not too hard for the starters.Some parts are boring and full of specific financial words.
Definitely some useful insights/perspectives, but past the introduction that was written for this collection of articles, I found the value diminishing. It's essentially a collection of HBR's greatest-hits about financial analysis that are geared toward non-financial people, and based on the title I was hoping for something a little more comprehensive.
Good book for providing the basics for non- financials. It focuses on understanding the 3-financial statements in addition to the profitability ratios. Highly recommend for understanding the basics.
A great intro into finance for new managers!
Very good review of foundational business finance. I especially enjoyed some of the examples cited along the way to illustrate key concepts.
This book is pretty good if you are getting in touch with financial terms and business analysis for the first time.It is not a book by a single author, it is a compendium of analyzes by different experts and is very well sequenced, which makes it less burdensome to read.I like that at the beginning you have a test of 10 questions and it gives you an idea of how much you know about the subject, and then at the end you apply it again. In my case, for being the first time that I got into these co...
Good but I hate finance. Basics covered so I now know what my bosses are talking about without looking like an idiot most of the time. Took me a bloody long time to finish such a small book.Don't recommend reading in bed.
Comprehensive Pocket Guide for ManagersIf you’re inexperienced in finance, this is a great crash course and reference guide, especially the glossary. It is best to refer to and retake the quizzes, as well.
Not that useful of a read. It cautions on assumptions with different cash flow/profit scenarios that appear positive/negative but are really the opposite.