Customer Reviews

The New CFO Financial Leadership Manual (Wiley Desktop Editions)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I browsed the book and found the table of contents to contain many interesting topics. With the "surprise me!" function, I happened upon the Sale and Leaseback discussion, a topic with which I am familiar professionally.

In my view, the author completely failed to grasp sale-leaseback decision analysis. Leasing is another form of debt financing (with some nuances), which can be very expensive and administrative. Rating agencies and competent creditors will simply capitalize your lease payments (at the cost of debt) and treat it as debt. It actually reduces your debt capacity, not increase it as the author suggests (in his excess cash example). Also, having idle excess cash to borrow against is expensive as the cost of debt exceeds the returns you can use on cash. And buying shares (i.e. returning capital) to "prop up" the share price is an irresponsible, simplistic and inaccurate view.

The treatment of the topic surprised me. God help the company with a CFO that would think as the author does.

I find the book well written for its purpose. It does not give you technical advice, you are supposed to know that, but what are the main areas of responsibility of a CFO and how to organise practically your finance department. It is very good for somebody new in the job or for young organisations striving to define processes and responsibilities. It is easy to read and focused on important things that a CFO should manage.

Very well comprehensive, organize, and with a new perspective of the CFO role in the industry. Appendix C is very interesting and very detail in all aspects of Due Diligence. In my opinion this is a great book and I encourage all financial students and practicians to buy this product for professional reference.