No comments about From Average to Awesome: Lessons for Living an Extraordinary Life.

No comments about The Business Analyst as Strategist: Trans Business Strategies into Valuable Solutions.

1 comments about GAAP Guide Level A (2008) (Miller Gaap Guide).

1. Researching GAAP is time consuming because of the multiple sources for pronouncements. This CD reduces the time it takes to find current accounting methods for common financial events. Instead of GAAP guides cluttering your office, CDs are space friendly.

5 comments about 60 Minute Strategic Plan.

1. 60 Minute Strategic Plan is a great business book! As the back cover states ".... an innovative planning and problem solving system." It is 147 pages that engage both the logical left-brain and the creative right brain to develop and implement a workable strategic plan. I really see it as a complete workbook.
   
   The authors have put together a workbook that actually takes the drudgery out of planning. The material is laid out well; it is entertaining, instructional, and informative. The material is presented in a building block method; each chapter builds on the previous, and is filled with samples, examples, and provides a sample company to illustrate actual execution.
   
   In the preface the author mention working with entrepreneurs and how a quick planning tool was needed, given the tremendous time commitment required building a business. I can see how this workbook can reduce the time commitment to strategic planning. Please don't think this is a shortcut, it is not. The book will get you focused as you complete the exercises.
   
   In summary, while this book was an output from working with entrepreneurs, or what we think of as small business people. I can see the flexibility of using this workbook to tackle most, if not all, business issues in any department of any size company.



2. 
   This is a good book. It was short, and easy to read. It is the fourth book covering strategic planning that I have reviewed for Amazon. And unfortunately, it is the fourth book on strategic planning which could only muster a 4 star rating from me. For some reason, authors seem to have a problem making the subject interesting, and presenting the subject material well. But don't get me wrong, I think this book is definitely worth the read. And I suspect anyone in charge of running a business OF ANY SIZE will get considerable insight into strategic planning from turning the pages of this book.
   
   The main strength of this book is how the authors have condensed its content into a fill-in-the-blank diagram that fits onto a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper. The diagram puts strategic planning into perspective and after studying the different components of the diagram a bit will probably become part of the executive's arsenal of leadership/management tools.
   
   My favorite chapters were:
   
   1. Why Plan?
   2. On Quantification and Consequences
   11. Step 8, Vital Signs
   16. Implementation (From Paper to Shoe Leather)
   
   To me the messages included in the above 4 chapters were the strong points of the book. There is so little planning going on in the business world, that the argument presented in Chapter 1 really rang true for me. And plans need to be quantified and consequences need to be evaluated. Thus Chapter 2 was good. I thought the authors did a particularly good job of talking about a plan's vital signs: measurements to audit, track, and identify behavioral adjustments. And a plan that doesn't get implemented is worthless. So Chapter 16 was great!
   
   I would have liked the book better if more had been written about business plans. The authors say business plans win battles and strategic plans win wars. I don't see it that way. I see it more like business plans are GRAND strategic plans. And strategic plans are merely plans to "fix" or "make better" a business plan. As a result of my difference in opinion, I thought the chapter on Issues could have been expanded and made much better. And coming up with less than great issues (questions or problems to solve) will doom an entire strategic planning pocess.
   
   I also would have liked the book better if the Second Step in the book were titled "Consequences" rather than "Assumptions." It wasn't until I read Chapter 5 about the Second Step that I understood that consequences had to be listed - not assumptions. 4 stars!



3. The "60 Minute Strategic Plan" authored by John E. Johnson and Anne Marie Smith could be your guide to spending 60 of the most strategic minutes you ever spent in the life of your business. This book presents one of the most innovative planning and problem solving systems I have seen in my professional career of over 35 years. The genius of the system is its simplicity and its characteristic of being user-friendly. The book presents a "universal system" that can be applicable to any business and any issue. This book is an easy read and is a "must read" for CEOs and management teams. If you want a strategic advantage in developing rapid responses to the rapid changes in the world of business, then this is a book for you. John Johnson And Anne Marie Smith have taken a process that is too often viewed as intimidating and made it into a non-intimidating, straight-forward, and easy to understand process that can pay huge dividends for you and your business. Their process certainly passes the KIS (Keep It Simple) test. They deserve a STANDING OVATION for this book. Reviewed by: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Founder & Chief Executive, J. G. EBERSOLE ASSOCIATES and THE RENAISSANCE GROUP (tm), Lancaster, PA. and Author of "Glenn's Guiding Lines - Thoughts From Your Strategic Thinking Coach" newsletter www.businesscoach4u.com



4. Well, I didn't have high hopes...it sounded too good to be true. But I really did end up with a strategic plan in about 50 minutes. And it was an easy read. The authors kept the tone light with nice touches of humor and practical insights. I recommend this book for anyone who has any sort of problem or issue they need to resolve. As the authors say, the 60 Minute process helps you make better decisions faster. This book is a must-have for business owners wanting to take their businesses to the next level. Bravo!



5. I needed a refresher on strategic planning and found this to be a good resource. There are some great ideas to assist with the process.

2 comments about Guide to Business Planning (The Economist Series).

1. I liked this book because it answers a lot of practical questions while making you think strategically.
   
   It's great if you need to do a business plan, but helps you to do the planning for what needs to be considered before and after the business plan phase.
   
   The spreadsheet download is a nice touch, and helps you to collect the relevant data needed for doing a business plan.



2. After having finished an MBA, I am currently involved in the creation of a new company. Although most of the knowledge is in my books, the extension of it made me search for an alternative.
   
   Using of this book was the answer to our need. It is a short and clear book that focuses in the most important things to consider, and we have used its reading to remember what we learned, and to build the fundations on our work afterwards. Not to forget the excel file that you can download and use for your business planning.

3 comments about Wealth Management: The Financial Advisor's Guide to Investing and Managing Client Assets.

1. Harold generously shares his knowledge, not only in solid investment thought, but in practical application. If you've ever wanted to know how to practically apply investment research to your own portfolios, this is the book that will do it



2. I had expected a typical fluff, despite Evensky's fine reputation. I has very surprised at this mixture of practical advice and theory. Pointers are given to other sources for those more theoretically inclined. Some of the practical advice (software recommendations and such) won't age as gracefully as the text itself, these packages will become obsolete before the book. Nevertheless, I'd highly recommend it for anyone who is looking to understand the basics of risk/reward, the importance of asset allocation, and the theoretical material that led to these ideas.



3. Mr. Evensky's book has had a profound impact on my wealth management philosophy. He is very effective in blending the broad scope of investment management theory with "real world", practical application. I found it particularly useful because it is not a book written by an academic who has never sat across the table from a client and held their hand through the good times and the tough. This is a must read for any serious manager of wealth.

   A. Todd Black, CFP

1 comments about Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager: The Human Aspects of Project Management, Volume 2.

1. In this second volume, the author covers almost all soft issues: how to organize great meetings, active listening, conflict management tactics, motivation theories (such as Maslow's, Erg's, Herzberg's and Mc Clelland's), guidelines for successful negotiations and team development stages.
   It is a good summary but is a bit short of practical examples or case studies to make this knowledge actionable.

4 comments about Value Investing For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)).

1. After reading many books on Warren Buffett and, more broadly, on the subject of value investing, I still found myself a bit lacking in how to identify the true worth of a business. The reason for this was that many of the books assumed more than, in fact, I really knew.

   (This is not to say that such books were of no value to me or won't be for you. It is simply stating the obvious: without a solid grounding in how to evaluate, and quantify, what any of the businesses I looked at were worth, I was strongly limited in my efforts of making good investment decisions. I was able to tell, for instance, that a company was competently run but not whether it would earn enough in the future to justify its current price. And that, as every rational investor will tell you, is key to achieving investment success.)

   _Value Investing for Dummies_ assumed virtually nothing. Sure enough this meant much in the book was a review of what I had already learned from others (and might be for you too) but to my mind there's nothing wrong with relearning what is already known. (Better to do so with a book at least than with one's own money.) In assuming little-to-nothing of the reader, the authors give the reader all the tools he or she needs to invest profitably in the future.

   Crucial to the dummy reader and, in this case, that means me, the book shows how to understand the _language_ of business: accounting. Since this is where the book shines, I'll pause here to allow the authors themselves a chance to explain what it is they're setting out to do. In Part 2 of the book titled "Fundamentals for Fundamentalists" the authors state their intentions as follows:

   "We open the value investor toolbox by first engaging in a short exploration of investing mathematics . . . Next up is a discussion of information and information sources key to the value investor. Then, we dig in further with a tour of the financial statement landscape, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. Ratios and ratio analysis are explored as a way to make more sense of these numbers. Finally, we help you to find and interpret non-numeric influences in the value equation."

   In the next section, Part 3, the authors again state their intentions:

   "We help you to assess or _appraise_ the value of a company and relate that value to the stock price. We examine some of the proven methods of business value asessment, including intrinsic value, book value, discounted cash flow, and the strategic profit formula. Then we sprinkle in a dash of intangibles (investors shouldn't live by numbers alone) and discuss buy and sell decisions. To bring these tools and techniques together into a system, we use none other than the full example of the master, Warren Buffett. Finally, to provide practice and reinforcement we present case studies of value, and for further reinforcement we resort to the age-old technique of showing opposites: examples of _un_value."

   As a reader of the book, and now a reviewer, I have the duty to tell you that the authors have done exactly what they intended to do--and they have done it well. The style is such that even somewhat boring topics seem lively and the technique, as it is explained above and practiced throughout, simply can not be improved upon. The crystal-clear definitions of accounting terms and financial ratios, the detailed explanations showing what they mean and why they are important, the real-life example of Warren Buffett, and the case studies taking you all the way through the process step-by-step make this book truly the best place to start for anyone interested in investing.




2. It is a good book for beginners in the subject of value investing. It is quite comprehensive but a bit long-winded at times.
   
   The only problem I find is that, for practical purposes, it stated that either you create your own intrinsic value model using Excel/Lotus spreadsheet or use the prepackaged Web model - the Quicken Stock Analyzer. However, to use the Quicken Stock Analyzer, you need to be a member. To get a Quicken.com Member ID, you need a current version of Quicken 2001, 2002, 2003 or 2004. When you install and register your copy of Quicken, you can specify your desired Quicken.com Member ID at that time.
   
   If you, a beginner, does not use Quicken software or does not know how to input the given formula into the Excel worksheet - tough. Another way is to read a more difficult book by A. Damodaran on value investing.
   
   Other than the above, the book is a good introduction and the first book to be read on value investing.



3. I am flat out Pissed Off that i paid for this book and i am most likely going to write a letter to the publisher and request my money back.
   
   There are Countless typos within this book. Stupid things like forgetting a period, spelling errors, and print errors like a margin overlapping text. These are minor and not really a big deal but the following is...
   
   As you probably know value investing is rooted in understanding a company up and down... this requires a view into their balance sheets and other financial data. This book attempts to explain this BUT the images of balance sheets they use are UNREADABLE! It looks like they used a small image of the balance sheet and blew it up to the point that the distortion just makes it totally unreadable.
   
   After a few pages of that, and text that referenced unreadable images i said screw this book and moved on.
   
   I highly suggest you find another value investing book... normally i really like the Dummies books, but this one is just no good.



4. This book is an introduction to Value Investing. The book gives you an overview of what you need to understand, but it will not make you an expert, and it will not serve as a reference manual either (which it claims to be). The book does have its good points, but it is overall a bit sloppily written. If the authors were to fix some of the issues I describe next, I would give this book 4 or maybe even 5 stars instead. In the meantime you may instead want to consider the book: Getting Started in Value Investing, by Charles Mizrahi.
   
   As another reviewer has pointed out, one problem with this book is that figures containing crucial financial statements are printed in a low resolution making them utterly unreadable (a magnifying glass will not help). These financial statements however, can be found in the 10K reports as the book suggests, and actually makes a good exercise for the reader to obtain and study annual reports. It is still a mistake on the authors/editors/printers part that shouldn't have been made though.
   
   Some formulas are incorrect, for instance the intrinsic value formulas on top of page 204, which should have been exponential. These formulas are crucial to value investing and it's again embarrassing to see such a mistake.
   
   Large parts of the book are simply poorly written. Some text passages here and there are almost incomprehensible, and require effort to grasp.
   
   The authors are also very repetitive and often say the same things twice or more, even within the same paragraph. I don't mind repeating oneself to aid in clarifying something, but it often appears the authors have forgotten what they wrote just two lines ago.
   
   There are many intermediate overviews of sections to come, which are too abstract to be understood for a novice in these matters, and merely serve to confuse the reader and waste time.
   
   There is too much focusing on accounting in the first part of the book, yet without going into enough detail or examples to truly understand what is going on. You will not become an accounting expert from reading this book, and many of the sections on accounting could have been significantly shorter, with references to more detailed books on the subject. The trick for an author is to gradually extend the reader's knowledge as needed, and not to present a complete theory at a point where the reader does not know how to apply it.
   
   There are too many assumptions on the reader. Phrases like "this ratio is just as it sounds", "this ratio is straightforward", etc. appear often. If the reader felt these were trivial matters, then why pick up a book called "... for dummies"?
   
   The authors put an effort into being funny (and sometimes succeed). But this is bad for readers who are novices however, because they do not know what is irony and what is serious. The section titles are also too 'clever' and do not convey much meaning to those who are not already in the know. I also do not like how the authors liken investment to flying airplanes, etc. because it's merely confusing to the reader.

1 comments about Practicing Financial Planning for Professionals , Practitioners' Version (10th Edition).

1. y Jeffers "CFP" (New York) - See all my reviews
   If you are looking for a complete and easy to use "bible" for the financial planner or are a student of financial planning this book is probably my favorite. It is COMPLETE. I used this book years ago as an instructor and found that I kept it as a reference to use in my practice.
   I recently received the latest edition as a gift to replace my shopworn copy and find to it to be up to date, easy to use and still the first book I grab when I need to reference something that I have forgotten over the years or simply don't know.
   I appreciate the depth of this book and recommend it to my fellow planners as the best book to own for good, quick answers or to students who really want to know the subject matter in a complete way.
   Before you order keep in mind this isn't a quick read, it's a BIG book and full of information.

1 comments about Artist Management for the Music Business.

1. This is a great no-nonsense "how-to" book about the business of managing recording artists. I loved the way the author assumed no prior knowledge of this business. I've been an artist manager and booking agent, but I got a lot out of this book. I urge any young band or solo artist to get this book and follow the author's advice. Reasonable price, meat 'n' potatoes information, and no fluff -- this is a great book!