government began standardizing and regulating financial reporting in 1929 when the stock market crash made it painfully clear that businesses often made absurd claims and that investors were either gullible, unable to verify information, or both. Now, financial reports are used by a company's management to measure profitability (or lack of it), optimize operations and guide the company, by banks and other lenders to gauge the company's financial health, and by institutional or individual investors interested in purchasing stock. Unless you're financially savvy, annual reports with all those figures, frustrating footnotes, and fine print are boring and intimidating. However, once you have a fundamental knowledge of finance and its basic terminology, you can find the juicy parts. Reading Financial Reports For Dummies by Lita Epstein, a teacher of online financial courses and author of Trading for Dummies, gets you up to speed so you can:Go past the prose that can maximize the positive and minimize the negative and get information in dollars and cents Get an overview from the big three--the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows Understand the lingo and read between the lines Calculate basics like PE, Dividend Payout Ratio, ROS, ROA, ROE, Operating Margin, and Net Margin It pays for investors to be somewhat skeptical instead of gullible. Pressured to please Wall Street, companies are sometimes tempted to use "creative" accounting. You'll discover how to:Detect red flags (that, unfortunately, aren't emphasized in red) such as lawsuits, changes in accounting methods, and obligations to retirees and future retirees Understand the different reporting requirements for public companies and private companies with various types of business structures Analyze a company's cash flow, a prime indicator of its financial health Scrutinize deals such as mergers, acquisitions, liquidations and other major changes in key assets Organized so you can start where you're comfortable and proceed at your own pace, Reading Financial Reports for Dummies helps managers prepare annual reports and use financial reporting to budget more efficiently and helps investors base their decisions on knowledge instead of hype. Whether you're in business or in the stock market, knowledge is always an asset.

    This book provides information and advice on the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment, and includes samples of the two types of writing tasks, examples of essays, authentic scoring guides, and strategies for preparing your responses.

    Using a simple step-by-step approach, the book is the perfect introduction to project management tools, techniques, and concepts. Readers will learn how to: - Develop a mission statement, vision, goals, and objectives - Plan the project - Create the work breakdown structure - Produce a workable schedule - Understand earned value analysis - Manage a project team - Control and evaluate progress at every stage. Fully updated based on the latest version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK(R)), the fourth edition contains new information and expanded coverage on the project risk plan; the change control process; the concept of the project manager as leader; and more. This up-to-the-minute guide is filled with tips and techniques for planning and executing projects on time, on budget, and with maximum efficiency.

    It is written for students of Strategic Management at all levels.

    Using a unique systems approach, it brings together an extraordinary breadth of information into a highly accessible, easy-to-read text that clarifies the complexities of health care organization and finance, while presenting a solid overview of how the various components fit together.

    . .

    In addition to explaining the basic moves, this book provides writing templates that show students explicitly how to make these moves in their own writing.

    As Buf­fett’s fortune and reputation grew over time, Loomis used her unique insight into Buffett’s thinking to chronicle his work for Fortune, writ­ing and proposing scores of stories that tracked his many accomplishments—and also his occa­sional mistakes. Now Loomis has collected and updated the best Buffett articles Fortune published between 1966 and 2012, including thirteen cover stories and a dozen pieces authored by Buffett himself. Loomis has provided commentary about each major arti­cle that supplies context and her own informed point of view. Readers will gain fresh insights into Buffett’s investment strategies and his thinking on management, philanthropy, public policy, and even parenting. Some of the highlights include:The 1966 A. W. Jones story in which Fortune first mentioned Buffett. The first piece Buffett wrote for the magazine, 1977’s “How Inf lation Swindles the Equity Investor.” Andrew Tobias’s 1983 article “Letters from Chairman Buffett,” the first review of his Berk­shire Hathaway shareholder letters. Buffett’s stunningly prescient 2003 piece about derivatives, “Avoiding a Mega-Catastrophe.” His unconventional thoughts on inheritance and philanthropy, including his intention to leave his kids “enough money so they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.” Bill Gates’s 1996 article describing his early impressions of Buffett as they struck up their close friendship. Scores of Buffett books have been written, but none can claim this work’s combination of trust between two friends, the writer’s deep under­standing of Buffett’s world, and a very long-term perspective.

    Operations Management presents a broad introduction to the field of operations in a realistic and practical manner, while offering the largest and most diverse collection of problems on the market.

    The book demands rigorous analysis on the part of students without requiring consistent use of sophisticated mathematical modeling to perform it. When the use of quantitative tools or formal modeling is indicated, it is only to perform the necessary analysis needed to inform and support a practical business solution. The guiding principle in the development of Matching Supply with Demand has been "real operations, real solutions." "Real operations" means that most of the chapters in this book are written from the perspective of a specific company so that the material in this text will come to life by discussing it in a real-world context. "Real solutions" means that equations and models do not merely provide students with mathematical gymnastics for the sake of an intellectual exercise.

    After winning the highest award in his field, Vincent was offered a 3 percent raise. He knew at that moment he needed a monumental change. One month away from their baby being born, Vincent and Elizabeth started a side photography business out of desperation. In less than four years, they grew their business to pay off all of their debt, including their home, and left their jobs for a life of freedom. With the world moving rapidly towards a freelance model, Freelance to Freedom is not only timely and necessary, but it’s also entertaining, engaging and paints a picture for anyone looking for a life of freedom with money, time and location.

    In this third edition of Cultural Resource Laws and Practice, Thomas F. King presents clear, practical information for those who need to navigate the labyrinth of cultural resource management (CRM). He discusses the various federal, state, and local laws governing the protection of resources, how they have been interpreted, how they operate in practice, and even how they are sometimes in contradiction with each other. He provides helpful advice on how to ensure regulatory compliance in dealing with archaeological sites, historic buildings, urban districts, sacred sites and objects, shipwrecks, and archives. King also offers careful guidance through the confusing array of federal, state, and tribal offices concerned with cultural resource management.

    It focuses on how project management is integral to the organization as a whole. The 5th edition reflects the latest changes found in the practice. Other texts discuss the topics covered in this text but they do not view oversight as the project manager's operating environment, as does Larson/Gray. Resumes of managers will soon be primarily a description of participation in and contributions to projects.

    Concepts and techniques included in the chapters and problem sets are used in many careers related to real estate. The material in this edition is also relevant to individuals who want to better understand real estate for their own personal investment and financing decisions.The Fourteenth Edition is designed to help students learn how to evaluate the risk and return associated with the various ways of investing and lending. Upcoming students who are interested in this field can use this book as a guide to perform the right kind of analysis to make informed real estate finance and investment decisions.

    Drucker). We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles on leadership and selected the most important ones to help you maximize your own and your organization's performance.HBR's 10 Must Reads On Leadership will inspire you to:- Motivate others to excel- Build your team's self-confidence in others- Provoke positive change- Set direction- Encourage smart risk-taking- Manage with tough empathy- Credit others for your success- Increase self-awareness- Draw strength from adversityThis collection of best-selling articles includes: featured article "What Makes an Effective Executive" by Peter F. Drucker, "What Makes a Leader?" "What Leaders Really Do," "The Work of Leadership," "Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?" "Crucibles of Leadership," "Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve," "Seven Transformations of Leadership," "Discovering Your Authentic Leadership," and "In Praise of the Incomplete Leader."