The Vest-Pocket MBA 2nd Ed.

Jae K. Shim, Joel G. Siegel, Abraham J. Simon

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1997, 503 pages

ISBN: 0-13-460304-4

Keywords: MBA

Last modified: April 17, 2021, 12:28 a.m.

Completely updated and revised (with six all-new chapters), the 2nd Edition of The Vest-Pocket MBA gives you fast, reliable answers to all the common — and not so common — questions that come up each and every day:

  • What constitutes accurate revenue recognition?
  • What are the signs of unreliable earnings?
  • How can you appraise receivables risk?
  • How can you implement transfer pricing?
  • How is divisional profit best measured?
  • What are the limitations of break-even analysis?
  • How can trend analysis be applied?
  • When should credit be granted to marginal customers?
  • How does a Profitability Index work?
  • How do you calculate internal rate of return?
  • How is an MRP adjusted when there is inventory on hand?
  • What is Effective Capacity or Utilization?
  • What is the Center of Gravity Location Method?
  • What is total market potential and how is it calculated?
  • What are the secured creditor's rights if the debtor defaults?
  • What is the Dodge Index?
  • How is foreign exchange risk appraised?
      • Introduction
    • Part I: Accounting Tools and Guidelines
      1. How to Evaluate a Company's Financial Position: Part I
        1. The income statement analysis
          1. Evaluating earnings quality
          2. Using accounting estimates
          3. Analyzing acquisitions
        2. Appraising the financial structure
          1. Evaluating earnings stability
          2. Recognizing revenue stability
          3. Determining quality of earnings
          4. Measuring external forces
        3. Ways to counteract inflation
        4. What is the impact of foreign operations?
      2. How to Evaluate a Company's Financial Position: Part II
        1. Balance sheet analysis
          1. Examining the balance sheet
          2. Evaluating operations
          3. Assessing accounting practices
        2. Liquidity
        3. Solvency
        4. Business failure
      3. Internal Accounting Applications for Your Company
        1. How to analyze divisional and departmental performance
        2. Contribution margin analysis
        3. Pricing tools
        4. Evaluating the product line
        5. How to measure marketing effectiveness
        6. Budgeting techniques
        7. Highlighting problem areas with variance analysis
    • Part II: Financial and Economic Measures
      1. Break-Even, Operating Leverage, and Discounting Analysis
        1. Break-even analysis
        2. Sensitivity analysis: changes in break-even
        3. From break-even to target profits
        4. Present and future value: When you receive the money
      2. Capital Budgeting Techniques and Risk-Return Trade-Off
        1. Capital budgeting: Four techniques for evaluating an investment proposal
        2. Comparing and selecting the best proposal
        3. Evaluating the risk-return trade-off
          1. One-year life projects
          2. Two-year life projects
          3. Multiyear life projects
      3. Assets Management and Financing Techniques
        1. Managing working capital
        2. Maximizing your return on cash
        3. Managing accounts receivable
        4. Formulating the best investment strategy
        5. How to best finance your business
    • Part III: Quantitative Methods and Computer Applications

      1. Decision Making with Statistics and Forecasting
        1. How to use basic statistics
        2. Using forecasting techniques
          1. Moving averages
          2. Multiple regression
        3. Regression analysis for sales and earnings projections
        4. What statistics to look for in regression analysis
          1. Simple regression
          2. Multiple regression
        5. Measuring the accuracy of your forecasts
        6. How to use the computer for multiple regression
      2. Making Use of Quantitative Decision Making
        1. Decision making under certainty conflict
        2. Decision making under uncertainty conditions
        3. Decision theory
        4. Linear programming and shadow prices
          1. Linear programming
          2. Shadow prices
          3. How to use the computer for linear programming
        5. Learning curve
        6. Inventory planning and control
        7. Queuing (waiting line) models
    • Part IV: Management, Marketing, and Legal Strategies

      1. Management
        1. Just-in-time (JIT) inventory
        2. Material requirements planning (MRP)
        3. Planning
        4. Total quality management (TQM)
        5. Other quality control techniques
        6. Managing quality control
        7. Quality control tools
        8. Group decision making
        9. Organizational structure
        10. Departmentation
        11. Performance evaluation
        12. Compensation
        13. Motivating performance through job design
        14. Effective leadership
      2. Production and Operations Management (P/OM)
        1. The organizational mission statement
        2. Strategy development process
        3. Managerial decision making
        4. Simulation models
        5. Capacity management
        6. Location analysis
        7. Time studies
        8. Work sampling
        9. Aggregate planning strategies
        10. Transportation method
        11. Scheduling
        12. Sequencing
        13. Project management techniques: PERT and CPM
      3. Marketing
        1. The definition of marketing
        2. Defining the market
        3. Managing the marketing process
        4. Market research
        5. Market segmentation
        6. Brand marketing decisions
        7. Service firm marketing strategies
        8. Product line decisions
        9. New-product development and marketing strategies
        10. Marketing channel design decisions
        11. Developing the promotion budget
        12. The promotional mix
        13. Advertising
      4. Business Law
        1. Contract law
          1. The importance of contracts
          2. Establishing the contract
          3. Violation of a contract
        2. Secured transactions
          1. Security interests
        3. Bankruptcy
          1. The mechanics of bankruptcy
        4. Consumer laws
          1. Consumer relationships
        5. Sales
          1. Selling goods or services
        6. Negotiable instruments
          1. Issues surrounding negotiable instruments
        7. Agency law
          1. How agencies work
        8. Property law
          1. How property is treated
        9. Insurance
          1. Insurance protection for business
        10. Labor and employment laws
          1. Employee relationships
        11. Business torts, white-collar crimes, and ethics
          1. Criminal acts and ethical violations
    • Part V: Economics and Multinational Issues

    1. Economics
      1. Major economic areas: microeconomics and macroeconomics
        1. Importance of business economics
      2. Measures of overall economic performance
      3. Price indices
      4. Other important economic indicators
        1. Indices of labor market conditions
        2. Money and credit market indicators
        3. Measures for major product markets
      5. Indices of leading, coincident, and lagging economic indicators
      6. Miscellaneous economic indices
      7. Monetary indicators and how they affect the economy
      8. What are the effects of lowering the discount rate?
        1. Inflation
        2. Productivity
        3. Recession
        4. Federal deficit
        5. International trade
        6. Balance of payments
        7. The value of the dollar
    2. International Trade
      1. Managing cash
      2. Financing
      3. Foreign operations
      4. Monetary position
      5. Foreign currency exchanges
      6. Spot rates and forward rates
      7. Long versus short position
      8. Exchange rate stability
      9. Foreign exchange risk
      10. Financial strategies
      11. The translation process
      12. Foreign currency transactions
      13. Conclusion

Reviews

The Vest-Pocket MBA

Reviewed by Roland Buresund

Good ******* (7 out of 10)

Last modified: May 21, 2007, 2:51 a.m.

More of a reference book. Seems pretty complete.

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