Customer Reviews

The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Finance for Nonfinancial Managers

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

 

 

Robert Cooke use humor throughout the book to help nonfinancial manager understand financial reports. The use of the Spouse House Firm throughout the book allows you to see the develop of financial reports as they apply to a small growing firm. Robert writes as he is right in front of you talking to someone he has known for a long time. He uses humor to help you understand the difficult concepts of the book. If you are looking to learn financial statements or just refresh your skills this is the book I recommend.

This book starts teaching before chapter one even gets under way by setting the expectation that you really can learn (and better, apply) finance no matter what you're trying to do.

The sample situation that follows all the way through the book really helps focus on the concepts being taught. Some of the examples are humorous and some make you want to share what you're reading with a loved one.

I bought this book because I'm just starting to deal with the budget aspects of network management, and needed to figure out how to lay out what I want to do technically to non-technical folks who have the company checkbook. I already know what I want to do, how much it will cost - demonstrating benefits and describing it in language the "C" team - CEO, CFO - speaks really helps.

One of the best discoveries for me while reading this book is that in addition to helping me achieve the goal above, I found the concepts are applicable to budgeting for the home as well.

It's definitely worth a read!

I'd definately recommend this book to anyone who feels phased by finance. Either as a refresher course to revamp finance skills long gone or for newcomers to the subject. The material is very relevant and extremely readable which makes an otherwise droll subject quite lively and interesting. I would have given this book 5 stars but being the pedantic reader that I am, I discovered that some of the calculations were actually inaccurate and, even worse, the answers to the review questions were wrong too. This doesn't help when you're not a natural number cruncher and need solid accuracy to assist in the learning process. Needless to say, its still a fundamentally good book and I know I'll be referring to it over again to make sure the basic concepts stick.

What a great book! It's easy to read, funny and it does a great job of explaining, piece by piece, the aspects of finance and it's interaction with a small business. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who owns a business, is thinking of owning a business or just wants to better understand what the finance world looks like from the outside.

It takes a black-box perspective on the subject to avoid dragging the reader into all the minute details while still giving the reader plenty to chew on, like COGS, depreciation, lease vs. buy decisions, and inventory valuation. The intent of this book is not to teach the reader to be an accountant but rather a book to teach the businessperson how to better use accounting as a tool so they can be more effective.

And I *love* to use of the example small business of Rosie's Spouse Houses to tie each accounting concept directly to specific "real-world" situations. The great use of humor really helps break up what can be a relatively unpalatable topic.

The only place this book falls a little short (but for good reason - it's already a long book!) is on financial statement analysis. For that, I'd recommend the book "How To Read a Financial Report" by John A. Tracy.

I have (and will continue) to recommend this book to my friends who own small businesses.