Bücher der Reihe Synthesis Lectures on Technology, Management & Entrepreneurship

Financial statements and information drawn from them confront us daily: in the media, in corporate annual reports, in the treasurer's reports for clubs or religious groups, in documents provided to employees and managers, as one considers alternative investments, in documents provided by homeowners' association and government agenciesVarious readers of a company's "e;financial score"e; make decisions based on financial information: the company's managers devise actions to improve operations; investors buy or sell the corporation's securities; creditors decide how much to lend; customers judge the reliability of this supplier; potential employees decide whether to invest their careers in the company. If you are training to be an accountant, find another book. This book's objective is to increase your ability to draw useful information from financial statements, and thus to make better decisions-in both your personal life and your professional life. Studying this book should help you be a better manager. That is both its objective and its perspective. The book starts at square one; it assumes no prior knowledge on your part. To increase your financial literacy, you will learn the common nomenclature (but not esoteric jargon) used by accountants and financial experts. You will be equipped to ask insightful questions of experts, to engage them and your colleagues in thoughtful debates about financial and accounting issues, and to make better decisions. Table of Contents: The Balance Sheet / The Income Statement / Valuation / Timing / Capital Structure / Cash Flow / Evaluating with Ratios / Cost Accounting / Budgeting and Forecasting / Rules and Integrity / Appendix: Scorekeeping at Not-for-Profits

Success in careers outside the university setting depends on an individual's capacity to master professional skills and respond appropriately to dynamic situations with flexibility, adaptation, and innovative thinking. This book describes a simple, common sense method of how to include professional skills training in any curricula without compromising academic rigor. It relies on introduction of unanticipated yet manageable crises simulating scenarios commonly experienced in the workplace. The method promises to inspire both students and their teachers to conquer new territory outside their comfort zones. Examples include how to respond to a demand for innovation and teamwork, a lay-off, a re-organization, or switching jobs and projects. These situations are bound to occur for most people and in most jobs they often create stress and, perhaps, despair. Preparing and practicing a mindful and healthy response is beneficial, and now this process can be performed in the classroom, while it serves as a platform for character building prior to unexpected real-life events. Key Features:- Description of the importance of, incentives for, and rewards of exiting the comfort zone- Principles for teaching and learning professional skills- Student anecdotes and reflection- Rubric entries and assessment of learningTable of Contents: The Comfort Zone and "e;Being out of It"e; / Exiting the Comfort Zone: Reasons and Impact / Getting Educators and Students out of the Comfort Zone / Principles of "e;Out-of-the-Comfort-Zone"e; (OOC) Teaching / Anecdotes of OOC Learning / Measuring the Outcome

Many of us wish we could design inventions and make decisions that were optimal and sustainable, but we do not know how to begin the approach. This book offers a guide to dramatically improve the quality of innovation and solution-making through the respectful use of existing and abundant, but often-ignored, resources. Sustainable innovation is about creative combination of ideas, materials, methods, and people, courage to derive value from opposition and diversity, integrative intelligence, virtuous planning, minimal consumption of resources, and definition of alternative plans. Using the method successfully requires that we are truly interested in the common good of humankind, that we care about our environment, and that we take time to think carefully about consequences before we act, invent, or make decisions. It is a call for a much-needed collaboration between people of different backgrounds, skills, and opinions with the intent to preserve individual and local integrity and adopt a win-win mindset. Try it, and partake in its positive and long-lasting effects!Key Features- Description of sustainable innovation and the untapped innovation potential- Sustainable innovation requirements- Sustainable innovation attitudes- Step-by-step guide to sustainable innovation- Application to 21st century challenges- A global win-win scenarioTable of Contents: Innovation Attitudes / Inspiration from the Natural and Behavioral Sciences / Untapped Sustainable Innovation Potential / Step-by-Step Guide to Sustainable Innovation / Notes on the Application to 21st century challenges/ Personal Step-by-Step Work Section / Looking to the Future

This book aims to increase the success rates of startups by focusing on value proposition innovation, which is propelled by the involvement of potential consumers as well as other resources such as freelancers and strategic relationships with academia. The author shows how startups who are resource constrained can invest efforts exploring the potential market of their products. The author also explores how global markets can be beneficial for a startup's success, while showing the workarounds in hard-to-access markets. The book investigates gaining knowledge shared by freelancers, customers, and academia, whose involvement can be crucial in supporting value proposition innovation activities such as ideas generation, implementation, and commercialization. Combined, the author leads readers to discover their ability to foster value proposition innovations that result into long term competitive advantage in a highly fluctuating business environment.