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The Definitive Guide to Business Finance: What Smart Managers Do With the Numbers

Richard Stutely

Talk about people management skills and most managers, quite rightly, will recognise their central importance to management. However, many managers secretly harbour fears when it comes to competency in financial management. The vital necessity of sound financial skills can be masked by their apparent complexity and uninspiring nature.

This financial skills gap may merely represent a challenge or an embarrassing incompetency for the individual, but can translate to major risks for an organisation. Richard Stutely guides the reader towards the heart of financial matters, shedding light in a way that enthralls, entertains and enlightens. He has produced this guide to all things financial as firstly a well presented source of tips and tricks to implement essential financial tools. However, rather than a brief guide, the book also draws on his extensive career experience to produce a wealth of information on financial thinking and psychology. The contents include: a day-to-day look at financial management, an in-depth look at past trends and future forecasting together with a thorough explanation of the nuts and bolts of financial life.

Each chapter is carefully laid out with Stutely's 'Jargon Watch' and 'Overview' sections keeping the reader on track and abreast of the ideas being discussed. The questions Stutely aims to resolve include:
 

• How do I discover the secrets hidden in the figures?
• How do I use the numbers for effective management decisions?
• How do I analyse the real performance of a business unit?
• How do I evaluate the viability of business opportunities?
• How do I improve business planning?
• How do I make accurate forecasts of sales, spending and profits?
• How do I make better investment decisions?

The Definitive Guide is a useful tool giving leverage and confidence to non-financial managers, whilst for the number crunchers it gives a clear methodology for sound financial techniques. For anyone with a desire to master financial matters at the strategic planning level or spreadsheet fundamentals, Stutely demonstrates how to span the financial knowledge gap.