How to add value to business as a finance professional

Books of Account
Reinventing the CFO
Jeremy Hope
(Harvard)

Liberate yourself from low-value-adding work

If you keep asking yourself how you can add value to your business as a finance professional, check ‘Reinventing the CFO' by Jeremy Hope (Harvard). The author sees the CFO as a champion of change in the finance operation and performance management practices, but cautions against simply parachuting best practices from one organisation into another.

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'Google, the Microsoft of the Internet generation'

Books 2 Byte
The Google Guys
Richard L. Brandt

Revenue versus principle

Becoming the new Microsoft may not be the description that Larry and Sergey would like to have, but it is inevitable, writes Richard L. Brandt in ‘The Google Guys' . Despite what the company's executives say, Google is no longer just a search company; it is an Internet software company, the author describes. “Larry and Sergey are on a grand quest to provide software for every device that connects to the Internet. Google is, in short, the Microsoft of the Internet generation.”

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'Past performance is no guarantee of future results'

BookValue
The House that Bogle Built
Lewis Braham
(http://www.tatamcgrawhill.com/)

Wanted, an effective asset allocation index

Despite the plethora of index funds and ETFs (exchange traded funds), there is one investment solution that index investors still need, that does not exist yet in a suitable form, and that is an effective asset allocation index, opines Lewis Braham in ‘The House that Bogle Built'.

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Subjectivity can stoke fear

Book Mark
Breaking the Fear Barrier
Tom Rieger
(Gallup)

Reward the courageous employee

A credit card company was faced with something apparently inscrutable: A negative correlation between its internal subjective perceptions of customer service and what customers actually thought, so much so that what the company defined as good service was actually bad service, and vice versa. But the company assumed it was doing the right thing because the employees followed predetermined steps with perfect compliance, reads a narrative in Breaking the Fear Barrier by Tom Rieger (Gallup).

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Corporate profits

Books of Account
‘India Policy Forum 2010-11: Volume 7'
Suman Bery, Barry Bosworth, and Arvind Panagariya
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Business dynamism vs entrenchment advantage

Corporate profits generally make for happy tidings for investors, but a worrying question put forth by a paper in ‘India Policy Forum 2010-11: Volume 7' from the National Council of Applied Economic Research and Brookings Institution is whether the profits are from business dynamism or advantages of entrenchment.

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The five aspects about money

BookValue
Unfair Advantage
Robert T. Kiyosaki
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Let go of old ideas

Knowledge, taxes, debt, risk, and compensation are the five aspects about money that Robert T. Kiyosaki elaborately discusses in ‘Unfair Advantage: The power of financial education'. Before you jump into these, however, you would need to know how to catch a monkey, as explained in the introduction.

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The functions of HRA

Books of Account
Human Resource Development
David McGuire and Kenneth Molbjerg Jorgensen
(http://www.sagepublications.com/)

Research journey into HR accounting

Human resource accounting is the focus of one of the chapters in Human Resource Development: Theory & Practice, edited by David McGuire and Kenneth Molbjerg Jorgensen. Employees have always been important in the production of goods and the provision of services, but what have traditionally been regarded as the primary engines of growth are land, financial capital, and technology, begins the essay.

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Emerging economies

BookValue
Crisis Economics
Nouriel Roubini
(http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/)

Let's get the letters right

U, V, or W? No, this is not a test of your knowledge of the alphabet, but a question about recoveries, because they come in different forms, reflecting their relative vigour or sustainability, as Nouriel Roubini highlights in ‘Crisis Economics: A crash course in the future of finance'.

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Business planning

Book Mark
Effectual Entrepreneurship
Stuart Read, Saras Sarasvathy, Nick Dew, Robert Wiltbank, and Anne
Valérie Ohisson
(http://www.routledge.com/)

Get your business plan right

Sample this: “Business plans have their time and place, though perhaps not in planning a business.” A shocker, but that is the opening line in a chapter on ‘business plans and business models,' in Effectual Entrepreneurship by Stuart Read, Saras Sarasvathy, Nick Dew, Robert Wiltbank, and Anne-Valérie Ohisson.

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To tackle corruption ...

Books of Account
Corruption and Human Rights in India
C. Raj Kumar
(http://www.oup.com/)

Right to be corruption-free

We may be able to relate to this situation, cited in Corruption and Human Rights in India: Comparative perspectives on transparency and good governance by C. Raj Kumar: “Poor villagers in West Java were baffled when their government rice supply suddenly dried up. Suppliers complained that their payment was 60 million rupiah in arrears. But villagers were adamant that they had paid the bills…”

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'Act different, think different, and make a difference'

Books 2 Byte
The Innovator's DNA
Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen
(Harvard)

Act now or it may be too late

Act different, think different, and make a difference. This is the signing-off message of Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen in The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the five skills of disruptive innovators (Harvard).

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Rethinking the role of boards

BookValue
Fixing the Game
Roger L. Martin
(Harvard)

Restoring the core of capitalism

The world being a crowded, politically unstable, and economically inequitable place, the prosperity of its inhabitants depends in considerable part on the rational and responsible creation of wealth through the operation of successful businesses, says Roger L. Martin in Fixing the Game: How runaway expectations broke the economy, and how to get back to reality (Harvard).

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Characteristics of MBA aspirants

Book Mark
Beyond the MBA Hype
Sameer Kamat
(http://www.harpercollins.co.in/)

Improve your MBA profile

If you are working hard to improve your MBA profile for the top B-schools, a sobering truth that Sameer Kamat highlights in Beyond the MBA Hype is that there is no ideal MBA applicant. “MBA admissions committees aren't looking for an ‘A' list candidate with Aamir Khan's creativity, Amitabh Bachchan's baritone, Amartya Sen's intellect and Mukesh Ambani's business sense,” he adds.

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